Mayor Lee Brand, along with local civic leaders and partner agencies, today announced the signing of the Master Grant Agreement (MGA) with the Strategic Growth Council for the Transformative Climate Communities Collaborative program. Mayor Brand will ask that the City Council approve the MGA for development and implementation of greenhouse gas emissions reduction projects in the amount of $66,500,000 at the council meeting on Thursday.
The City of Fresno has been awarded grant funds from the State of California through the Strategic Growth Council (SGC) to fund the development and implementation of neighborhood-level coordinated greenhouse gas emissions reduction projects that provide local economic, environmental and health benefits to disadvantaged communities.
The submittal for the grant funds, named the Transform Fresno Plan, includes coordination with several partners to deliver a variety of California Climate Investment projects such as urban greening, active transportation, housing, low income weatherization, and food waste prevention and rescue in the Downtown, Chinatown, and Southwest Fresno communities.
“We can improve our environment and take a giant step to reduce chronic poverty with this program. This grant will lead to triple the investment in economic development and that will mean more jobs and better services for everyone,” said Mayor Brand. “It will not only transform communities, it will transform lives.”
The City was awarded the funding in January of 2018 and has since then been working with SGC to finalize the details of the Master Grant Agreement that dictates the regulations for project implementation and the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which lays out the plan for continued community engagement in all facets of implementation as required by TCC Grant Program guidelines.
Fresno was selected to receive 50% or $70 million (minus a mandatory 5% reduction for a State administrative fee) of the total available state funding for several factors. Fresno has long faced challenges of environmental and socioeconomic disparity.
A total of $111 million of leveraged funds are included in the agreement in order to satisfy the TCC Grant Program’s 50% match requirement. Some key projects included in the leveraged funds are $70 million from State Center Community College Bond Measure C Initiative for the Fresno City College West Fresno Satellite Campus; $15 million from CMAQ, Measure C, SB1 and Rule 20A for transportation infrastructure and utility undergrounding funds for the perimeter street improvements at Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard, Jensen, Church and Walnut; and $3.5 million Federal and State transit funds for FAX service improvements.