Downtown Leadership Council discusses climate action plan

The Columbia Downtown Leadership Council continued discussing the city’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan on Wednesday.

Members of the council spit-balled ideas on how they could encourage community members and businesses to create a more eco-friendly downtown.

As a whole the group decided transportation and waste should be two major areas of focus when making their plans because they are both prevalent downtown.

Council members discussed several ways they could encourage people to avoid driving downtown, and walk or bike instead, including by closing off busy streets, such as Ninth Street, for part of the day. One member also brought up the idea of having a trolley in the downtown area.

Council member Tootie Burns said allowing more space for people to stroll down the street would have environmental and economical impacts.

“I think getting people in a pedestrian frame of mind. A better way to put it is a non-car frame of mind,” she said.

Burns brought up the idea of laying out several things individuals and businesses could do, from easy to hard, so people would not be so overwhelmed when thinking about their impact.

“It’s having things in a way that people can do them and implement them into their own lives,” Burns said.

The council also talked about ways to decrease waste. One idea included encouraging bars to recycle and for businesses and and individuals to get energy audits from the city.

The DLC did not set a specific date for when it would like to have recommendations for City Council or the Office of Sustainability, but said it would continue to discuss its role.

Burns had a more specific timeline in mind.

“I’d like to see, by the end of the year, that we have some set of guidelines … it doesn’t have to be huge, and I think that’s the main thing. Something easy that people can take and say ‘Yes, I can do that. Yes, my business can do that. Yes, my family can do that,” she said.