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City Council Report |
City Council Meeting: March 12,
2013
Agenda Item: 7-C
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Dean Kubani, Director, Office of
Sustainability and the Environment
Subject: Introduction and First Reading of an Ordinance
Establishing Sustainability Rights
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council introduce for first reading the attached
ordinance establishing sustainability rights for Santa Monica residents and the
natural environment.
Executive Summary
Following
previous direction by Council staff has prepared an ordinance that codifies the
commitments made in the Sustainable City Plan and asserts the fundamental
rights of all Santa Monica residents regarding sustainability. The ordinance also establishes the rights of
natural communities and ecosystems to exist and flourish in Santa Monica and
asserts the rights of residents to enforce those rights on behalf of the
environment. The ordinance establishes
that corporate entities do not possess special privileges or powers under the
law that subordinate the community’s rights.
The ordinance requires City staff to prepare a biennial written report
for presentation to Council at a public hearing on the state of the local
environment and the City’s progress in implementing and enforcing the
Sustainable City Plan and the provisions of the ordinance. There are no immediate financial impacts or budget actions
associated with the adoption of this ordinance establishing sustainability
rights.
Background
Santa Monica takes pride in
its long-standing commitment to environmental leadership. The City adopted its Sustainable City Plan
(SCP) in September of 1994 and updated it in 2003 and 2006. The SCP recognizes that a
healthy environment is integral to the City's long-term societal and economic
interests and that collective decisions made by the City must allow the economy
and community members to thrive without destroying the natural environment upon
which they depend. Therefore, the SCP
commits the City to protecting, preserving and restoring the natural environment. It also recognizes that local environmental,
economic and social issues cannot be separated from their larger context and
therefore commits the City to development programs and policies that will serve
as models for other communities.
In the years since the SCP
was adopted, the City has created and funded a wide range of successful
environmental programs. And, the City
has successfully utilized environmental protection laws to hold polluters
accountable for damage done to its natural resources.
Nonetheless, environmental crises including: global climate
change; habitat destruction and species extinction; soil, air and water
pollution; and resource depletion continue to grow throughout the world. In
response, Santa Monica’s local environmental community and national
environmental leaders have urged consideration of a new approach being taken in
other cities and countries – an approach that would recognize the rights of
both humans and the natural environment to exist and flourish. This natural
rights movement is based on the belief that Earth is a community whose members
are humans, other animals, plants, rivers, streams end eco-systems and that all
members of the community must have rights to ensure the sustainability of the
whole. The movement seeks a paradigm
shift away from the current economic and legal systems' classification of
nature as "property" and towards a more holistic view that would
place the interest of natural communities and long-term sustainability ahead of
short-range, individual and corporate economic goals.
On March 21, 2011 the City’s Task Force on the Environment
created a subcommittee to explore the creation of a Sustainability Bill of
Rights (SBoR) for Santa Monica. That subcommittee drafted a proposed
framework for the SBoR which would:
1.
Recognize the rights of people, natural communities and ecosystems
to exist, regenerate and flourish;
2.
Authorize individuals to sue to effectuate the rights of the
natural world;
3.
Subordinate corporate rights insofar as those rights threaten
sustainability; and
4.
Commit the City to meeting specified environmental goals by
specified dates and taking other specified actions to fulfill the commitments
made in the Sustainable City Plan.
On June 20, 2011
after discussion of this framework the Task Force adopted the following motion
by a 4 to 1 vote:
The Santa Monica
Task Force on the Environment recommends Council direct staff to develop a City
of Santa Monica “Sustainability Bill of Rights”
On January 24, 2012 Council adopted a resolution declaring the City’s Commitment to Sustainable Rights. This resolution was developed by staff based
on the work of the Task Force on the Environment and represents a formal
recognition by the City of the rights of Santa Monica residents to:
The resolution also recognizes the fundamental rights of
natural communities and ecosystems to exist, thrive
and evolve; and it supports effectuating these rights by modifying local law
and policy as needed to better protect and sustain the natural environment for
current and future generations.
With adoption of the resolution Council directed staff to
return with proposals for policy, process and legal changes that would protect
the rights of people and natural communities consistent with the
resolution. The attached ordinance has
been prepared to address this request.
Discussion
The attached
ordinance codifies the
commitments made in the Sustainable City Plan to:
1.
Restoring,
protecting and preserving our natural environment and all of its components and
communities;
2.
Creating
and promoting sustainable systems of food production and distribution,
transportation, waste disposal, and water supply;
3.
To
the full extent legally possible, subordinating the short term, private
financial interests of corporations and others to the common, long-term
interest of achieving environmental and economic sustainability.
Based
on the resolution adopted by Council on January 24, 2012, the ordinance asserts
the fundamental rights of all Santa Monica residents to clean water from
sustainable sources, clean air, a sustainable food system, a sustainable
natural climate, comprehensive waste disposal systems that do not degrade the
environment, and a sustainable energy future based on renewable energy
sources. The ordinance recognizes the
rights of natural communities and ecosystems to exist and flourish in the city
of Santa Monica and asserts the rights of residents to enforce those rights on
behalf of the environment. The ordinance
also recognizes that corporate entities and their
directors and managers do not possess special privileges or powers under the
law that subordinate the community’s rights to their private interests.
The
ordinance establishes a requirement that every two years City staff shall
prepare a written report on the state of the local environment and the City’s
progress in implementing and enforcing the Sustainable City Plan and the
provisions of the ordinance. The report
must include recommendations for advancing and ensuring compliance with the
Sustainable City Plan and must be reviewed at a biennial public hearing by City
Council for Council comment and direction.
In
order to further highlight sustainable rights as a priority for the City of
Santa Monica, staff is creating a new article to the Santa Monica Municipal
Code which will house and/or reference all current and future code sections
related to the environment and sustainability policy and regulation, including
the attached ordinance. As this will be a substantial effort to complete, staff
will present this new SMMC article to Council for
adoption later this calendar year.
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Financial Impacts & Budget Actions
There are no immediate financial impacts or budget actions
associated with the adoption of this ordinance.
Prepared by: Dean Kubani, Director
Approved: |
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Forwarded to Council: |
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Dean Kubani Director, Office of Sustainability and the Environment |
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Rod Gould City Manager |
Attachments:
1)
Ordinance Establishing
Sustainability Rights