DEL MAR — The City of Del Mar is recruiting two volunteers to serve on the city’s Sustainability Advisory Committee. The committee advises the City Council on climate change, sustainability and other environmental issues on which the council may wish to act.
The committee also takes the lead in advising the council on how and when to update the city’s Climate Action Plan, or CAP, which was developed by the advisory committee in June 2016, and it assists in informing Del Mar residents and businesses about implementing the city’s climate plan and on environmental and climate action issues.
The Sustainability Advisory Committee will also monitor the activities of the Clean Energy Alliance, which the city joined last year.
Clem Brown, Del Mar’s environmental sustainability & special projects manager, said there are nine total members, seven voting members and two ex-officio, non-voting members. Of the voting members, a minimum of six have to be residents of Del Mar and one can be a non-resident of Del Mar.
“The projects that SAC (Sustainability Advisory Committee) works on are technical in nature, and they wanted to potentially bring in somebody that was interested in joining that wasn’t a resident of Del Mar, but had a lot of technical background in sustainability or something related to the environment that would benefit the committee,” Brown said.
The current committee liaisons are Mayor Dwight Worden and Councilman Dave Druker, with Brown serving as the city staff representative.
Meetings are held on a quarterly basis, down from a monthly basis due to COVID-19 restrictions on staff, budget and resources. The committee’s last meeting was in January.
“One thing they want to focus on is exploring a building electrification ordinance, which would require all new buildings in Del Mar to be fully electric and not run off natural gas,” Brown said. “They’re also really interested in preserving and enhancing the city’s tree canopy, and there’s a lot of environmental benefits for that.”
Brown added that the committee is also interested in reducing Del Mar’s usage of single-use plastics.
He also highlighted that, though the committee serves as an advisory group to the council and does not actually have the power to implement these ideas, it serves a crucial role in bringing ideas to the council that could make tangible differences.
The deadline for applying to be on the SAC is Friday, Feb. 11. To apply, visit: delmar.ca.us/347/Committee-Vacancies
