Strategic Growth Council Announces Round 5 Transformative Climate Communities Grants

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The Strategic Growth Council (SGC) today announced the winners of its fifth round of Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) grants, awarding $98 million to eleven projects.

The TCC grant program is aimed at inspiring communities to collaborate on planning and implementing projects that reduce ghg emission, improve public health and the environment, and expand economic opportunity.

The grants - listed below - have brought together disparate partners, including government agencies and nonprofits, to come up with solutions for problems identified by residents.

The grants are divided into groups: planning grants to help communities gather and apply for future grants, project development grants that help fund pre-development costs, and implementation grants that fund the on-the-ground projects, which can include affordable housing, transit, biking, and walking improvements, clean energy and energy efficiency, green infrastructure, air quality, workforce training, and anti-displacement programs.

Implementation Grants: $22,125,000 each

The SGC planned to give out only three implementation grants, but four of the six applicants scored so closely to each other that they recommended funding all four, with a slightly lower grant amount for each. Staff plan to work with the applicants to either reduce the scope of the projects or help them apply for other funding sources.

The proposals were required to include six "transformative elements," including data collection and indicator tracking; community engagement; displacement avoidance; workforce development and economic opportunities; climate adaptation and resilience; and leveraging of funding from additional sources. The applications were also evaluated in terms of several policy priorities, including connectivity to future high-speed rail; consistency with existing local land use and transportation plans; access to basic infrastructure, regional services, and job centers; air pollution reduction and mitigation policies; and prohousing policies.

• City of Bakersfield – Southeast Strong Bakersfield has received previous TCC grants, which applicants say have "renewed and reinvigorated community partnership." This grant includes seventeen community partners working on nine integrated projects, including affordable housing, a mixed-use senior center, low-income energy efficiency program, garden collaborative and re-imagining a park; safe routes to schools and corridor improvements, urban greening, and senior apartments.
• The Energy Coalition – Pomona ACTS This is a collaboration between eight community partners on complete streets, transit passes, an e-bike library, EV chargers, cool roofs, an urban farm and tree planting. These projects are the outcome of an earlier (round 3) TCC planning grant.
• City of Coachella – Coachella Prospera Ten community partners will collaborate through a shared decision-making structure on a wellness hub, clean low-cost energy, affordable housing, a transit hub, and Green Raiteros.
• San Diego Foundation – Rooted in Comunidad, Cultivating Equity Eleven community partners will implement transit improvements including a transit hub, solar power installations, land acquisition for a community land trust, community gardens and a new park.

The SGC also received applications from the City of Arvin in the San Joaquin Valley, and from La Familia Counseling Center for Greening North Franklin in the city of Sacramento. Although these did not score high enough to win grants this time, SGC staff note that they were both "deserving proposals with the potential for transformative change."

Project Development Grants: $8.7 million for the four highest-scoring applicants out of ten received

• Riverside County – Mecca and North Shore Climate Resiliency Plan, $4 millionThese two are geographically isolated, largely Latinx low-income farmworker communities subject to extreme heat, power outages, dust storms, flooding, and bad air quality. Community residents have identified the needs for active transportation, solar readiness and a microgrid study, and a climate resilience center.
• Santa Barbara County – Resilient Cuyama Valley, $1 millionThis is a disadvantaged, unincorporated rural community at risk for wildfires, landslides, and riverine flooding. The community will develop projects for home retrofits, greywater and backyard composting, microgrid, safe drinking water, and safe routes to schools.
• Mariposa County – Rural Transit Oriented Development (RTOD) Phase I, $1 millionA community-led transit-oriented affordable housing project will be developed as the Integrated Mariposa Housing Strategy.
• Mendocino County Resource Conservation District – Transformative Activities for Tribal Communities in Russian River Watershed and Surrounding Areas, $2.5 millionSeveral non-contiguous tribal areas along the Russian River Basin will conduct needs assessments, community engagement, and knowledge-sharing among Tribal partners to prepare a resilient workforce and resilient infrastructure projects, including a solar-powered water pumping station on the Eel River, community resiliency centers, solar microgrids, EV charging stations; water and energy efficiency planning,and community gardening programs.

Planning Grants: around $300K each to:

• Urban Collaborative Project Community Development Corporation – Community Planning Collaborative for a Green Southeast San Diego
• Tranquillity Resource Conservation District – Transformative Communities Plan Development for Climate Readiness of an Agriculture-Based Economy of Historically Underserved Farmers, and the Workforce of the Future
• GRID Alternatives Greater Los Angeles – PACT for Paramount

According to the SGC, the Round 5 grants will lead to projects that will reduce ghg emissions by a combined 36,647 metric tons, equivalent to taking 8,155 gas-powered passenger vehicles off the road for a year

To date, $424 million has been invested in 37 California communities through the Transformative Climate Communities Program.

The announcements were made this morning at a celebration in the city of Bakersfield, one of the implementation grant recipients.