Indio targets $27.5M state grant for solar homes, EV chargers, and new trails

The Indio Sustainability Commission voted Monday to recommend that the city council authorize Indio to apply for the Transformative Climate Communities Round 6 grant, a state program offering three awards of $27.5 million each.

The formal application is due Sept. 30. A pre-proposal submission is required by June 30.

Indio previously applied for the grant’s implementation component in Round 4 but was not selected. Projects proposed in that round included electric vehicle chargers, active transportation infrastructure, energy efficiency improvements and solar installations on homes in the project area. Feedback from that unsuccessful round cited a workforce development component focused only on solar installations, limited partnerships with community-based organizations in Indio and other concerns about the application’s detail.

City staff said Indio is better positioned for Round 6 than it was for the previous attempt. Vice Chair Celina Jimenez, who managed a Transformative Climate Communities grant for the city of Coachella, said she would assist in writing the new application.

“You’re not starting from scratch,” Jimenez said. “You’re going to start from a very good foundation.”

Jimenez said the grant can support a range of projects, including urban greening, active transportation, health and well-being initiatives, green infrastructure, transit hub improvements and mobility programs. She said enlisting nonprofits and community-based organizations as partners would be important to building a competitive application.

“[The state] appreciates it when people submit applications that are well supported by other nonprofits, community-based organizations because [they] understand that in order to implement full-blown climate resilience adaptation measures, you’re not able to lift this by yourself,” she said.

City staff said, “We are busy talking to a lot of potential partners, getting some letters of recommendation that we’ll need, we’ve been talking about some of the project ideas again that have been funded that we believe can be funded.”

The grant allows cities to set aside up to 5% of the award for administrative costs, with individual plan components carrying threshold funding requirements of 3% of the grant award each.

Chair Anetha Lue recused herself from the discussion and the vote, disclosing that she is the executive director of Eco Vista 360, a nonprofit currently working on a California EPA project in the same geographic area covered by the proposed TCC application. Lue recused and two other commissioners absent, Vice Chair Jimenez moved to recommend city council approval of the application. Commissioner David Getka seconded the motion, which passed.

“I think the city is in really good shape to submit another application,” Jimenez said.

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