Take a look at the recording of a presentation of findings and recommendations by a ULI Advisory Services Panel (ASP) tasked with providing strategic guidance in Sonoma County. The presentation was held on Wednesday April 21, 2021. You can view the recording through Knowledge Finder!

The ASP panelists, with expertise from around the country, assessed land use and development strategies as part of Sonoma County’s Recovery and Resiliency Framework. They developed recommendations to enhance wildfire, economic, energy, and community resilience and address key concerns including:

• Planning and investing for grid resilience
• Land use and development for wildfire resilience
• Equitable governance, partnerships, and funding

Given current and forecasted climate conditions, Sonoma County recognizes that wildfires will continue to be a significant risk, and the County is looking to ensure buildings and transportation systems become more resilient to wildfires. De-energization as a wildfire prevention strategy will also continue to pose threats to human health and safety without a more resilient energy grid. The County recognizes that shifting away from fossil fuel use will increase dependency on electricity to power buildings and transportation systems. Sonoma County needs a comprehensive strategy to plan, fund, and implement effective responses to these increased risks.

The Sponsor for this panel is the Sonoma County Regional Climate Protection Authority (RCPA), which is working closely with Sonoma County government and local utilities.

Panelists

• Molly McCabe (Bigfork, MT), The Lotus Campaign and HaydenTanner – Panel Chair
• Jose Bodipo-Memba (Sacramento, CA), Sacramento Municipal Utility District
• Christopher Calott (Berkeley, CA), University of California, Berkeley; CALOTT + GIFFORD Architecture; INFILL SOLUTIONS
• Jeremy Klemic (Los Angeles, CA), SWA
• John Macomber (Boston, MA), Harvard Business School
• Molly Mowery (Denver, CO), Community Wildfire Planning Center
• Peter Quintanilla (Pittsburgh, PA), Michael Baker International
• Diana A. Ramirez (Austin, TX), Travis County Budget & Planning Office
• Neil Webb (Syracuse, NY), Ramboll

For more information about the panelists, please follow this link.

Advisory Services Program

For over 70 years, ULI has offered technical assistance to communities dealing with a wide array of real estate and land use challenges through our Advisory Services Panels. Advisory Services Panels (ASPs) are week-long, workshop style evens where a volunteer team of experts (“panelists”) recruited from ULI’s membership and/or program partners convene to answer a set of study questions. Panelists collaborate to produce unbiased and independent recommendations via a written report and a public presentation. Over twenty ASPs have focused on climate resilience as part of ULI’s Urban Resilience program.