The city of Phoenix plans to spend $60 million on a new set of shades for residents. The City Council approved the 5 year “Shade Phoenix Plan” which will plant 27,000 trees and build 550 shade structures. The vote replaced the City Council’s original goal of shading 25% of Phoenix by 2030 – a plan which the city has made no measurable progress on to-date.
The report emphasizes tree equity, or more plainly, planting trees in the areas that need it most – commonly lower-income areas. Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego celebrated the new plan at Solano Elementary School. Gallego said it’s “an exciting milestone along the way to our goal of increased tree shade cover and built shade structures in the parts of our city that need it most. Phoenix is the hottest big city in the country, but thankfully, it’s about to become a little cooler.”
Members of the city council said they hoped staff would pay special attention to not only planting the trees but more importantly, keeping them alive. The plan does not obligate staff to report survival rate or net trees gained, but Office of Heat Response and Mitigation Director Dave Hondula hopes to discuss those metrics when possible.
What’s in this 85-page plan that aims to “accelerate the creation and enhance the maintenance of shade in Phoenix?”
It focuses on adding shade, maintaining existing shade, and evaluating progress annually. Creating a “citywide movement around shade and heat” that educates the public about “sustainable and equitable shade practices.” The report includes 36 action items that fit within 11 strategic priorities. These action items include completing grant programs to plant trees at schools and in neighborhoods, building permeable pavement or using plants and soil in public rights of way like sidewalks to reduce heat, spending more on “cool corridors,” the high-pedestrian areas targeted for shade, building 80 bus stop shade structures per year and making the permitting process easier to plant trees.
The original plan was established in 2010 but fell apart. A lack of metrics, economic turmoil, confusion over the goals, a culture of turnover and the shifting of responsibilities between city departments essentially halted any progress. The internal team tasked with making the plan a reality one day simply stopped meeting.
In 2021, the City Council pivoted. Instead of an overall shade target, the city would focus on tree equity. A factor city officials are hoping will make a big difference this time is the federal and city funding commitment. In addition, the newly formed Office of Heat Response and Mitigation, which is leading the charge on the shade plan. These new goals also have shorter timeframes, meaning more closely watched accountability requirements.
The city largely plans to measure success by the number of trees and shade structures added, the number of trees replaced, the amount of money spent on tree and shade maintenance and the percentage of trees and structures in good condition. Another metric is what percentage of the plan’s actions are completed or underway within five years.
While the Shade Phoenix Plan says the city should follow a “no-net-loss approach,” city staff won’t be obligated to track survival rate, how many trees are lost each year or net gain. However, certain city departments already track this individually. The report states that while Phoenix had planted roughly 33,000 trees in the last 14 years, another 21,000 were removed, leaving a net gain of only about 12,000 trees. The new plan also doesn’t include specific shade canopy targets. The staff is supposed to measure “shade canopy percentage” however it doesn’t say the percentage has to increase by a certain amount.
While no specifics were given, the mayor said the city will plant “native species” that grow deep tap roots, use less water and will be much stronger in summer storms.
The office of Heat Response and Mitigation hopes to talk about net trees planted and survival rate where possible, but admits that at this stage, the resources aren’t in place to know the status of trees every day. Another challenge for Phoenix is ensuring adequate irrigation for the trees which is mentioned in the plan as a priority.
The plan does call for a comprehensive inventory and overall shade assessment which is supposed to be accomplished by June 2025. The assessment will show “where shade exists at different times of day and different times of the year.” It will use “three-dimensional building and landscape data” to help the city identify the best places to plant trees.
The council is set to vote on the contract to establish the inventory this month. City officials hope that with this plan, Phoenix is setting a “nationwide example of how to leverage technology to fight back against a collective challenge: urban heat.”