The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency is kicking off another round of community meetings today to get public feedback that will guide its climate action planning process.
NOACA’s climate action plan is not yet developed and still in the early stages, said Executive Director and CEO Grace Gallucci. When completed, the plan will outline efforts to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change in Northeast Ohio.
“Looking at it both ways is how to have people reduce their impact on climate and how to reduce the impact of the climate on people,” she said. “We end up with a plan that does have … strategies, projects, plans and [addresses] it very differently for different communities.”
The process has created tension between advocates for action to combat climate change, like Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne and Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, and some representatives of outlying counties who believe such action is not NOACA's role.
Ronayne and Bibb sounded the alarm in March when they said climate action language was removed from NOACA's planning document. Gallucci said it was a work in progress and language was not removed. The climate action planning process continues and the agency will seek feedback and provide information, she said.
NOACA hired the Joel Ratner Community Partnership to help facilitate this round of public engagement. Unlike the virtual engagement sessions held in January, these meetings will be held in-person, Gallucci said, and will be simplified to ensure the agency gets clear, direct feedback from the public.
“We need to make sure that we are connecting with them on a real … level. What do they think? What do they feel? What do they want? Do they understand?” she said. “It's an opportunity to educate, but, more importantly, it's an opportunity to hear from them on what they want.”
The first meeting will be held at the Reaser Grand room in Lorain County Community College's Spitzer Conference Center at 5:30 tonight. Additional sessions will be held in in Lake, Cuyahoga, Geauga and Medina counties this month.
Sessions could be added as needed depending on the feedback provided at the meetings, Gallucci said. The current meeting schedule is as follows:
Join us next week for the first three Community Engagement Sessions concerning Regional Climate Action Planning! We're excited to hear your ideas and concerns on the subject.https://t.co/x3I1K9OJv6 pic.twitter.com/DcJeRw3NRf
— NOACA (@NOACA_MPO) August 11, 2023
Lorain County – Monday, Aug. 14
Lorain County Community College
Spitzer Conference Center, Reaser Grand Room
1005 N. Abbe Rd.
Elyria, OH 44035
Lake County – Tuesday, Aug. 15
Lakeland Community College
Building H, H116 Auditorium
7700 Clocktower Dr.
Kirtland, OH 44094
Cuyahoga County – Thursday, Aug. 17
Cuyahoga County Community College
Jerry Sue Thornton Center, Ford Room
2500 East 22nd St.,
Cleveland, OH 44115
Cuyahoga County – Monday, Aug. 21
Cuyahoga County Public Library, Middleburg Heights Branch
16699 Bagley Road
Middleburg Heights, Ohio 44130
Geauga County – Tuesday, Aug. 22
Federated Church Family Life Center, Great Hall
16349 Chillicothe Rd.
Chagrin Falls, OH 44023
Cuyahoga County – Wednesday, Aug. 23
Cuyahoga Community College
Corporate College
4250 Richmond Road
Highland Hills, OH 44122
Medina County – Thursday, Aug. 24
University of Akron Medina, Westfield Room
6300 Technology Ln.
Medina, OH 44256
Residents and stakeholders who cannot attend the in-person sessions can share their insights through NOACA’s online Climate Resilience and Climate Action Strategies survey.
The engagement sessions held in January received high attendance and significant pushback from Tea Party groups and residents who did not believe in climate change or the need for an action plan. But when compared to the results of a survey conducted as part of NOACA’s Long Range Plan, Gallucci said it’s clear these attendees did not reflect the region’s stance on climate change overall.
“This was a statistically significant survey … that had that population sample size that was representative,” she said. “When we did that, there was clearly support for recognizing climate change and for having our public officials, elected officials do something about it — do more about it.”
Climate action planning can benefit the region, Gallucci said. One example of a regional benefit is the potential to remove the required E-Check for vehicles in Northeast Ohio by improving the region’s air quality.
“We have [E-Check] there because we have air quality that is beyond a certain level. And we need to make sure that we're always working towards cleaning the air,” she said. “But if we could get it to a certain point where it would meet standards, we could then eliminate E-Check, and that would be a very positive outcome of climate action planning whether or not you believe in climate change."
People are welcome at the public engagement sessions regardless of their stance on climate change or climate action, Gallucci said, and will not be restricted unless they become “unruly or unprofessional” or disruptive.
NOACA representatives will also be present at the meetings to give attendees the opportunity to speak with them directly.
NOACA submitted an application for the federal Climate Pollution Reduction Grant Program in May. The U.S. EPA approved the application, giving the agency jurisdiction to create a regional climate action plan.
“NOACA is more than just transportation planning,” Gallucci said. “It has always been more than just transportation planning. It ebbs and flows with what funding is available and what requirements are developed at the federal level.”
The agency expects to have the climate action plan finalized by December, Gallucci said, well before the U.S. EPA’s March 2024 deadline.
NOACA will continue its public engagement efforts into the fall, and will offer opportunities for both public feedback and education around climate change and pollution reduction, Gallucci said.
Those efforts include the region-wide engagement sessions, smaller engagement sessions if communities request them and interactive Climate Fresk workshops to better understand the science behind climate change.
“That's what's different about January to now. We've taken a step back and realized that not everybody knows as much as the people who are working on it,” Gallucci said. “We had to step down out of the ivory tower and come down and … talk to people where they are.”
