The Fairfax Town Council finds and expressly declares as follows:
(A) Scientific evidence has established that natural gas combustion as well as leakage occurring during natural gas procurement, transportation, storage, and distribution produce significant greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming and climate change.
(B) The following addition to the Fairfax Municipal Code is reasonably necessary because of local climatic, geologic, and topographical conditions as listed below:
(1) The town is situated along a wildland-urban interface and is extremely vulnerable to wildfires and firestorms, and human activities releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere cause increases in worldwide average temperature, drought conditions, vegetative fuel, and length of fire seasons.
(2) Structures in the town are located in close proximity to the San Andreas and Hayward seismic faults, which collectively and individually maintain the potential to produce serious damage, fires, and/or explosions as a result of damage to natural gas infrastructure in buildings due to unforeseeable seismic activity.
(3) The town has a history of significant flooding from the Fairfax and San Anselmo Creeks and their tributaries. Extreme weather conditions resulting from climate change may result in sudden, prolonged rainfall leading to further flooding events.
(C) The following addition to the Fairfax Municipal Code is also reasonably necessary because of health and safety concerns as Fairfax residents suffer from asthma and other health conditions associated with poor indoor and outdoor air quality exacerbated by the combustion of natural gas.
(D) As described in the Town of Fairfax Climate Action Plan and Fairfax Climate Emergency Declaration (Resolution No. 19-04) rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society are required to limit global warming and the resulting environmental threat posed by climate change, including the prompt phasing out of natural gas as a fuel for heating and cooling infrastructure in new buildings.
(E) Substitute electric heating and cooling infrastructure in new buildings fueled by less greenhouse gas intensive electricity is linked to significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions and is cost competitive because of the aggregate cost savings associated with all electric designs that avoid new gas infrastructure and increasing natural gas fuel prices.
(F) All-electric building design benefits the health, welfare, and resiliency of Fairfax and its residents.
(G) The most cost-effective time to integrate electrical infrastructure is in the design phase of a building project because building systems and spaces can be designed to optimize the performance of electrical systems inasmuch as projects can take full advantage of avoided costs and space requirements from the elimination of natural gas piping and equipment venting systems.
(H) The intent of this chapter is to eliminate natural gas infrastructure and associated greenhouse gas emissions in new buildings where all-electric infrastructure can be most practicably integrated, thereby reducing the environmental and health hazards produced by the consumption and transportation of natural gas.
(Ord. 856, passed 9-1-2021)