Elgin council to discuss Sustainability Action Plan
The culmination of a multiyear effort to develop a plan for Elgin’s sustainability future is finally coming before the city’s governing body.
Council members will discuss the Sustainability Action Plan, which consists of recommendations that reduce resource use and energy consumption in the city, during the committee of the whole meeting Wednesday.
More than 100 community volunteers have contributed time and energy toward the 106-page document over the course of the last year. They conducted outreach over the winter to get comments and suggestions on their draft, then spent the spring incorporating recommendations by the community and city staff.
What the group will present to the council is an action-based plan. Some of the more than 100 recommendations focus on education and can be implemented at very little cost, others will take more money and need more time, according to Aaron Cosentino, sustainability and grants coordinator for Elgin.
Cosentino facilitated the planning process for the nine different working groups that developed the plan. He said adopting the document will give the city an extra bargaining chip in the pitch for state or federal funds to help implement sustainability initiatives.
“Any time you can point to some sort of document that city council has evaluated and approved, it strengthens your grant application,” Cosentino said. Council members also will decide Wednesday if it makes sense to form a sustainability commission.
The commission would consist of nine members, provide a level of oversight and accountability to the implementation process and supply a venue for continued involvement by the community.
“They’ll be able to filter up their ideas from the plan through the commission,” Cosentino said. “The commission will be the clearinghouse.”
Cosentino said the commission also will ensure the focus on sustainability does not diminish with the completion of the plan.
The council’s approval of the plan as a whole does not mean an approval of each individual point. As specific proposals are ready for implementation, the council will vote on them in the same way it would any other city project.
To view the Sustainability Action Plan in its entirety and recommendations on nine different topic areas visit cityofelgin.org/green.