Town staff walked the Climate Action Committee through an update on 2025 metrics and a proposed work plan for 2026, emphasizing continuing implementation tasks and a few new, county-coordinated strategies.

Phoebe said two of eight 2025 work-plan items are completed while six remain ongoing. She reported 193 EV purchases in Corte Madera so far this year (data through Q3) and a year-over-year increase in heat-pump space-heater permits from 34% to 44% of relevant HVAC installations. Staff noted the California Energy Commission provides EV purchase data on a delayed schedule and the municipal inventory for town operations has not been updated since 2018 (for 2015) — an updated municipal GHG inventory is now feasible with current PG&E consumption data.

On regulatory timelines, staff described Bay Area Air District proposed revisions to rules 9.4 and 9.6 that are being reviewed to address affordability and equity. Phoebe summarized the implementation schedule cited in committee discussion: 2027 for residential water-heater requirements and 2029 for space-heating requirements, with the district considering limited exceptions.

The committee discussed VMT reduction as a new multi-year strategy. Options raised included joining the Redwood Bike Share pilot, requiring bicycle parking for special events, incorporating Transportation Demand Management elements into the commercial code update, and coordinate countywide VMT toolkit adoption. Staff said Transportation Authority of Marin is developing a VMT toolkit and the town is beginning to receive modeled VMT baseline data.

On incentives, staff noted a permit-fee schedule updated on April 15 (effective July 1) now reduces fees for electric water heaters, heat-pump HVAC systems, battery backup, EV charging and solar; staff plan to evaluate the effectiveness next year. The committee also confirmed the 2025 reach-code package was adopted by Council Oct. 21 and is undergoing state review; if cleared it will take effect Jan. 1.

Next steps: complete the fleet electrification plan (expected April), run a municipal operations GHG inventory, monitor permit data for heat-pump siting issues, and scope VMT-related pilot opportunities in coordination with county partners.