Priority 3: Reduce pollution exposure and improve air quality

Work with any identified significant stationary pollutant generators to the extent it is within the City’s jurisdiction (e.g., gas stations, automobile repair, dry cleaners, and/or diesel generators) to minimize the generation of pollution through best available control technologies.

Conduct proactive education and outreach about indoor and outdoor air quality and protective actions that can be taken to both improve air quality inside one's home and to minimize exposure to poor air quality index days.

Action Item: Identify and implement methods and avenues for public education and outreach about air quality issues in the community. (EJ2.C.1)

Action Item: Support the distribution of air purifiers and/or other air cleaning devices within underserved communities, especially for sensitive populations.  (EJ2.C.2)

Minimize and mitigate illegal solid waste dumping (as defined in 7.04.030 of the Municipal Code), potentially through minimizing fees for disposal at landfills in collaboration with South Bayside Waste Management Authority (SBWMA).

Action Item: Conduct proactive outreach in underserved communities to inform households of free trash pickup days and solid waste disposal opportunities and programs, including the ACT Menlo Park reporting app. Outreach can include signage about ACT Menlo Park along Pierce Road. (EJ2.D.1)

Action Item: Explore ways to subsidize or eliminate fees for disposal at landfills and implement for underserved communities. (EJ2.D.2)

Review the City's Green Infrastructure Plan and update, as necessary, to incorporate environmental justice. Focus on underserved communities and implement programs in this Element, in coordination with related regional efforts.

Action Item: Support efforts by other agencies to abate hazardous, polluted, or toxic sites. Align with community members and collaborate with regulatory and regional agencies to clean up hazardous, polluted, or toxic sites and incorporate sea-level rise and groundwater rise in remediation decisions. (EJ2.E.1)

Action Item: Prioritize comprehensive undergrounding of utilities in underserved communities on private and public property to promote resilience. Consider the impact of shallow groundwater rise on underground utilities. (EJ2.E.2)

Action Item: Focus green stormwater improvements for areas at risk of flooding with an emphasis on underserved communities. (EJ2.E.3)

Action Item: Support West Bay Sanitary District, the respective responsible agency, in their efforts to prevent sewage discharges during large stormwater events. In the event of occurrence, coordinate with the responsible agency in conducting proactive, extensive, and prolonged community outreach and education to inform underserved communities of protective actions and risks. The City can coordinate with agencies to promptly share their information with the City Council and community after storms. (EJ2.E.4)

Action Item: Collaborate with landowners to decrease the risk of flooding by advancing watershed management projects that reduce and/or store runoff during rainfall events, including the installation of green infrastructure and Low Impact Development (LID) practices, and improve the condition in the floodplain, for example through floodplain restoration or improvement. (EJ2.E.5)

Action Item: Encourage green infrastructure in future developments, including using green infrastructure as preferred alternative. (EJ2.E.6)

Action Item: Establish requirements for major development and redevelopment projects to construct and maintain urban greening projects in the adjacent public right of way. Community benefits for such projects could include shade trees for pedestrian and biking routes. (EJ2.E.7)

Action Item: Restore and enhance parks, natural lands and large open spaces and explore expansion of the City’s natural areas preservation system through land transfers and acquisitions of undeveloped/unprotected private and public lands. (EJ2.E.8)

SamTrans anticipated being fully electric by 2034, in compliance with State
law requiring transit fleets be all electric by 2040.

Consider revisions to applicable City regulations that will reduce pollution exposure, eliminate environmental inequities, and improve quality of life in underserved communities.

Action Item: Review truck routes and/or identify and pursue measures for reductions to diesel emissions in underserved communities. (EJ2.I.1)

Action Item: Identify, evaluate and implement potential mitigation measures that support Caltrans mitigation efforts to reduce noise and air quality impacts from adjacent freeways and highways, particularly those impacting underserved communities. (EJ2.I.2)

Action Item: Install improved vegetative buffers between freeways and highways and adjacent land uses to reduce noise and air quality impacts, upon identification of the roadway segments for such installations. (EJ2.I.3)

Action Item: Review and update the Transportation Toolkit (Appendix I to the Transportation Master Plan) and the City's standard design details to incorporate Universal Design principles to enhance access for all people. (EJ2.I.4)

Action Item: Support roadway design that integrates green stormwater infrastructure into traffic calming (where appropriate) and includes trees, landscape buffer areas, public art, public space, and other visual enhancement. (EJ2.I.5)

Action Item: Consider rezoning and limiting the intensity and usage of industrially zoned properties and/or other means such as landscaping to ensure a healthier and safer separation between residential and industrial uses. (EJ2.I.6)

Action Item: Explore reductions to parking requirements with the intent to encourage balanced live, work, and play environments. (EJ2.I.7)

Action Item: Inform residents and organizations in underserved communities of the permit application process for temporary street closures for temporary events such as farmers’ markets, arts and craft fairs, bicycle and pedestrian events, and other public events. Consider easing the permitting process for temporary street closures in the city. (EJ2.I.8)

Develop Urban Forest: Developing the Management Plan for Menlo Park within four years of the adoption of the Environmental Justice Element.

Action Item: Urban canopy expansion prioritizing underserved communities and areas vulnerable to urban heat effects, using tools such as the Tree Equity Score and Bay Area Greenprint. (EJ2.J.1)

Action Item: Implement equitable canopy expansion procedures and promote and maintain healthy and vibrant trees that may require dedicating additional resources within the City Arborist Division, Public Works. (EJ2.J.2)

Action Item: Include trees, landscape buffer areas, public art, public space, and other visual enhancements in roadway projects, emphasizing tree planting and landscaping along all streets. (EJ2.J.3)

Action Item: Use Urban Forest: Developing the Management Plan for Menlo Park to prioritize the retention of mature street trees in public rights of way or City-owned parcels during infrastructure modifications. (e.g., using solutions such as bulb-outs, basin expansion, and sidewalk re-routing). (EJ2.J.4)

Action Item: Coordinate with property owners to help preserve mature trees by replacing any that require removal in any redevelopment process. Explore opportunities to transplant trees and vegetation that require removal during construction to other places within underserved communities. Consider requiring multiple new trees be planted for each mature tree removed. (EJ2.J.5)