OPCAN’s Climate Action Proposal for the 2026 Oak Park Village Budget
Oak Park Village Board on Aug 5, 2025. Photo by Paul Goyette
To: President Scaman, Village Trustees, Village Manager Jackson, Deputy Manager Zayyad, and Chief Sustainability Officer Roland-Nieratka
Date: August 20, 2025
The Oak Park Climate Action Network (OPCAN) thanks you for your leadership in local climate action. We are proud of the village’s accomplishments over the past several years including:
Establishing a successful energy efficiency grants program
Passing nation-leading ordinances to eliminate methane gas from new construction and landscaping in Oak Park
Delivering on a resident-focused Climate Coaching program
Updating the Village Bike Plan to reflect current needs and values
Taking the first steps to establish a one-stop shop assisting residents and businesses with electrification
With this year’s budget and policy proposal, OPCAN recognizes that the world has changed significantly since we began our work. In many parts of the world, the global warming limit of 1.5℃ has been exceeded.
Therefore, our 2026 budget proposal emphasizes resilience in addition to greenhouse gas reductions.
Our budgetary priorities for the next year total $2,380,000, and are summarized below:
| OPCAN Budget Proposal Summary | Budget |
|---|---|
| Operate one-stop shop for residents and businesses | $300,000 |
| Revamp rehabilitation loan & grants program for all-electric home improvements | $1,400,000 |
| Expand Climate Ready RainScapes program | $400,000 |
| Develop a tree giveaway program | $70,000 |
| Conduct professional marketing (for the above initiatives, see budget detail) | $210,000 |
| Total | $2,380,000 |
Our policy priorities include:
Establish metrics that benchmark progress on CROP, for review by the Village Board quarterly
Conduct professional marketing to ensure effective implementation of many of the proposed programs
Establish Building Performance Standards
Strategically use Village reserves to advance sustainability goals and grow revenues for the Sustainability Fund, in part by allocating Village EV charging fees to the Sustainability Fund
Below are additional budget and policy details on the above recommendations.
Thank you for your consideration,
Pamela Tate, Amy Rosenthal, Susan Buchanan, Mac Robinet, Cindy Klein-Banai, Chris Pinc, James Schwartz, Laurie Bunkers, Laura Derks
On behalf of the Oak Park Climate Action Network (OPCAN)
Cindy-Klein Banai presenting at the 2024 Bringing Clean Energy Home event. Photo by Paul Goyette
Budget and Policy Proposal Detail - 2026 VOP Climate Action
The Village’s successes position Oak Park as a national leader on climate. The Village has the potential to build powerfully on these results with the right policy actions and budget allocation in 2026 – which require both staying the course and effectively responding to worsening climate conditions.
The world has changed significantly since we drafted our 2025 budget priorities letter. First, in many parts of the world, we have now surpassed the high-ambition global warming limit of 1.5℃. Second, the ambitious federal funding and enabling policy for climate action in 2024 and 2025 will be almost entirely eliminated in 2026. As a result, our best options are to:
Rapidly limit local emissions as we prepare for global “overshoot”
Bring together mitigation and adaptation actions that support all residents, regardless of income level or background
Implementing both the life-saving resilience programs and the emissions reductions initiatives envisioned in Climate Ready Oak Park (CROP) – and to prevent the worst impacts of climate change – will require new and alternative sources of funding and finance. OPCAN’s policy and budget recommendations for 2026 are therefore informed by this new reality.
Our policy and budgetary priorities for the next year are $2,380,000 for
Continuing and expanding focus on reducing emissions from Oak Park’s largest emissions sources,
Unlocking new funding and finance for effective implementation of CROP, and
Investing in health and nature-based solutions that reduce emissions while building resilience to climate changes that are already locked in.
Below we describe the recommended programs and budget expenditures in detail.
Effective implementation of many of these programs requires professional marketing, communications, and outreach. We recommended a marketing campaign last year to increase resident uptake; we strongly urge the Village to take this up in FY26, as part of program implementation (specified for key programs below; total of $210,000 which is reflected in table on cover page).
We also ask the Village and its Board of Trustees to establish metrics for quarterly review to determine progress on these areas and the Climate Ready Oak Park (CROP) implementation plan.
1) Continue and expand focus on reducing emissions from Oak Park’s largest emissions sources: building energy usage by residents and institutions
In 2022, 72% of Oak Park’s emissions came from residential and commercial building energy use, up from 70% in 2019; as such, it remains our most urgent and sizable focus for emissions reductions, and is likely to be the priority focus for many years to come. The up-front costs of electrification remain the largest barrier for homeowners, costing up to $20k or more to upgrade to electric heat pumps. Therefore, we strongly recommend that the Village:
Operationalize the one-stop shop for residents and businesses as quickly as possible, and continue to remove administrative and financial barriers to help more stakeholders reduce their emissions (CROP BD03 + BD06).
$300,000 +$50,000 for professional marketing and outreach
Invest Village funds in zero-interest clean energy loans, revamping the rehabilitation loan program for home improvements to require all-electric upgrades for eligibility.
$1.5 million ($1.4 million for 55 loans of max $25,000; $100,000 for marketing & outreach for loans + energy efficiency grants)
Complete the inventory for large Building Benchmarking, introduce fines for eligible buildings that do not report, and establish Building Performance Standards and enforcement via a new Village ordinance.
Sufficient Village staff time dedicated to this program (estimated ratio of 1 staff to every 300 buildings over 10,000 sq ft)
2) Unlock new funding and finance for effective implementation of Climate Ready Oak Park
Municipal, state, and private sources will become essential drivers of CROP activities and emissions reductions in the near future, particularly as federal funding, grants, and programs are being scuttled. As such, we strongly recommend:
Strategically use Village reserves to advance sustainability goals aligned with CROP. Since the Village has substantially more reserves than are necessary for good governance and meeting legal requirements, now is the time to invest a portion of these reserves – those that are beyond the required minimums – in the health and sustainability of our community.
Sustain and grow revenues for the Sustainability Fund, enabling effective and life-saving CROP implementation. We believe that new Oak Park programs and policies can have a double effect by encouraging or inducing emissions reductions while increasing resources to incentivize and
finance equitable and ambitious emissions reductions and resilience. We strongly recommend beginning this process by allocating Village EV charging fees to the Sustainability Fund, adopting key CROP activities (e.g., CROP DR02 + DR03), and holding a Trustee study session on this topic in 2025.
Intentionally pursue public-private partnerships with businesses and private philanthropy to implement emissions-reduction and resilience-building initiatives aligned with CROP in Oak Park, which are not currently funded. High-priority areas for investment include: nature-based solutions, including urban forests on institutional campuses; transitioning vacant or development lots to sustainable, community-benefiting uses; establishing EV and bike infrastructure; and marketing and communications campaigns.
3) Invest in health and nature-based solutions that reduce emissions while building resilience to climate changes that are already locked in
OPCAN strongly supports the Village’s RFP this year to develop a strategy and roadmap for implementing green infrastructure in Oak Park, which will help fulfill CROP priority activities (e.g., GI02, GD01, GD04, NN03, and TC01). In addition, there are urgent, no-regrets programs that Oak Park should enact in 2026 that will reduce emissions while supporting residents who face growing impacts of climate change — from basement and road flooding, to poor air quality from wildfire smoke, to increasing numbers of summer heatwaves and droughts, more frequent polar vortexes, and rising rates of illnesses typically found in warmer climates. These include CROP activities cross-referenced with the Community Health Strategic Plan (or IPLAN), like emergency alerts, heating and cooling centers, tree planting to help cool buildings in summer, and respiratory and emerging illness tracking. For the 2026 budget, we recommend:
Reach more residents with the Climate Ready RainScapes program in 2026 to cover more of the long waiting list (102 interest forms submitted in 2025, for 24 slots) and spur additional actions across more flood-vulnerable neighborhoods in Oak Park (in partial fulfillment of CROP GI02). At scale, the Climate Ready RainScapes program has the potential to reduce basement flooding and damage to infrastructure, store more carbon and nitrogen in local soils, and help Oak Park reach its 30x30 goal.
$400,000 (200 homeowner grants; $100,000 for program administration)
Develop and pilot a tree giveaway program that increases carbon removal and sequestration on residential and commercial sites. Public Works has the staff and expertise to undertake this
giveaway, and to track its impact; OPCAN and its community partners would be delighted to help get the word out and support the running of the program itself. At scale this program could remove CO2 from the atmosphere, offsetting greenhouse gas emissions in Oak Park, help cool nearby buildings, and contribute to Oak Park’s 30x30 goal for nature.
$80,000 ($70,000 for program; $10,000 for marketing & outreach)
We remain very grateful for the leadership and partnership of the Village to effectively address climate change in Oak Park, helping reduce overall emissions and increase community resilience.