A Very ‘Cool’ Program
A Very ‘Cool’ Program
Our innovative climate-resilience planning begins with hyper-local community
What is the “L.A. Cool Capital Stack” project? And how is it shaping L.A. County?
The Cool Capital Stack is a program funded by the California State Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program (ICARP). The current program focuses on four communities across L.A. County, including both unincorporated areas (West Whittier and East L.A.) and incorporated neighborhoods (City of Paramount and the Panorama City neighborhood in the city of L.A.). The project’s goal is to engage residents in these communities in preliminary thinking around climate resilient infrastructure projects they would like to see in their neighborhoods, before other project concepts enter the County or city planning pipelines. The project also aims to build capacity for work related to climate resilience among local community-based organizations using a mentorship model. For each of the four communities, the project includes a more regional community-based organization or nonprofit with expertise in climate resilience, paired with a very local organization that has deep community knowledge and is new to engaging around climate resilience issues.
What types of projects does L.A.'s Cool Capital Stack aim to support in our region?
The Cool Capital Stack is all about empowering local organizations and residents, and to build capacity and grow expertise to advocate for climate resilience investment locally. Often, when we’re addressing a specific community improvement or other environmental priority, we’re also addressing climate resilience today and for tomorrow. We’re promoting early community engagement to inform integrated, multi-benefit, climate resilient infrastructure solutions that are tailored to individual community needs and values. We support projects that incorporate strategies that are often emphasized by community members and advocates such as cooling and shade, walkability and active transportation, and biodiversity and nature-based solutions. This may mean specific site projects (e.g., street or park trees, stormwater capture with a bioswale or rain barrel); a suite of specific improvements (e.g., depaving and greening of public or private property for new community uses/spaces, shade structures and bus shelters along a major transit corridor); or, neighborhood-wide approaches and new partnerships or programs (e.g., tree plantings on private property with arboriculture workforce development, walking and biking connections to broader regional recreation networks).
What are the most immediate climate impacts that greater L.A. needs to get moving on? What specific threats are most worrying in the next 20 years?
Key climate hazards include increasing temperatures (a stress) and frequent, longer, and more intense heat waves (a shock); weather whiplash of more severe rainstorms and more prolonged droughts; worsening wildfire conditions and impacts; coastal erosion and sea-level rise; and biodiversity loss and other cascading impacts. These hazards exacerbate inequities, affecting low-income residents, outdoor workers, older adults, and linguistically isolated populations most severely. The countywide Climate Vulnerability Assessment examines the County’s social and physical vulnerabilities to and risks from climate hazards.
What are the key next steps for our region as we better build resilience in face of increasing climate impacts? What role is the CSO playing in climate planning and implementation?
Important next steps and actions are laid out in the 2025 OurCounty Plan. This update of the County’s sustainability plan explores climate resilience needs and opportunities more deeply, including existing initiatives and County plans, as well as essential new actions. This also acknowledges the kinds of innovative engagement practices we’re testing through programs such as the Cool Capital Stack. The CSO is directly leading projects, co-hosting networks and convening internal and external stakeholders, advancing budget alignment, and working to bring more resource and funding to bear for projects and programs.
What issues are unique to our area, vis a vis other parts of the state? What special challenges do we face?
L.A. County’s size, diversity, and jurisdictional complexity make coordination on regional priorities a challenge. About half of the County’s census tracts are considered disadvantaged, and those disadvantaged communities disproportionately intersect with climate risks. Each community has different social, cultural, and even ecological and biological needs and opportunities, which makes balancing detailed local implementation with overarching regional infrastructure systems and vision a big challenge.
What are the biggest roadblocks for building resilience? Lack of urgency? Finding money? Logistics/Infrastructure? Oversight/Jurisdiction? What are we trying to get ahead of and what are the obstacles?
Securing ongoing sources of funding will be a challenge. Cool Capital Stack is all about the earliest stages of project development. But for the concept to work, we need to be able to move those early ideas along the pipeline from early engagement to project development -- all the way to project implementation and ongoing maintenance. That will require funding and investment commitment. Keeping the pipeline flowing will be crucial to validating the community contributions, demonstrate progress and prove the utility of a coordinated, regional approach. Regional complexity is also a significant challenge. There are many different jurisdictions and partners working towards similar or related projects and goals all across the County, with varying levels of capacity and awareness of each other’s work. Building connections and relationships among these entities, and raising awareness about work that has already been completed and gaps that still remain is a major part of the work.
What steps are the Board of Supervisors taking to provide leadership, funding and prioritization of all these various climate initiatives?
The Board of Supervisors understands that climate resilience is a Countywide issue. That’s why the Board directed the Department of Public Works, with support from the Chief Sustainability Office, to launch the Climate Ready Communities (CRC) program. The Cool Capital Stack project is an exciting opportunity to do deep and early community engagement, and to pilot how the County can support this type of work in incorporated cities. It is actually one subset of the broader CRC initiative. CRC aims to strengthen resilience in the places most vulnerable to climate change. Like Cool Capital Stack, the CRC initiative focuses on preparing climate-vulnerable communities and populations for climate risks such as extreme heat, inland and coastal flooding, wildfires, and drought, but it does so across all unincorporated areas of the County. CRC identifies the most impactful and high-priority infrastructure projects and adaptation strategies to reduce impacts of climate risks and build long-term resilience. As part of this initiative, the County is developing a Climate Capital Improvement Program to align climate-resilient projects across departments. In addition, Public Works is developing a Climate Ready Roadmap to embed sustainability, resilience, and climate equity into their infrastructure planning and operations. CRC also emphasizes collaboration with community-based organizations and tribal partners to ensure that resilience solutions reflect local needs, build trust, and promote equity in climate resilience.
What role do residents play in building/fostering better readiness for worsening climate impacts?
In addition to individual and household hazards preparedness, and other social resilience building efforts, we hope residents will contribute by participating in early engagement and feedback, helping shape projects to reflect local needs and values. This includes engaging and weighing in on local planning efforts of all kinds related to climate resilience – from tree planting and shade structures to bike lines and community centers. By sharing your own lived experience of how climate change will impact or is already impacting your life and your community, you can help ensure resilience strategies are as responsive as possible to local needs.