In August 2025, the Grand Rapids City Commission adopted its first ever Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP).
The plan is 116 pages long and includes a number of initiatives and aims which would overhaul various facets of life in Grand Rapids. Here are a few parts of the climate plan that you might find surprising.
“Centers equity” is the official vision statement.
The plan’s very first goal is to build “a resilient, low-carbon city that centers equity in climate solutions.” This sentiment is reflected in the rest of the plan, every major section of which employs racial language and metrics to decide where money and projects ought to be directed.
The plan is clear: climate change and racism are intimately connected. The term “racial equity” appears 20 times throughout, and the plan as a whole articulates the ways in which the powers of municipal government can be used to fight both climate change and racist infrastructure.
According to the plan’s authors, Grand Rapids is a racist city. “City infrastructure, policies, and investments,” they write, have “systemically neglected and harmed Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) and low-income communities.”
It includes race- and income-targeted tree-planting money.
Even the distribution of trees, the plan suggests, is racially motivated: “tree canopies reduce risks of both heat and flooding. Leaving [Neighborhoods of Focus] and communities of color more vulnerable to the effects of climate change (both heat and flooding).” The plan even contains a “tree equity score.”
Resources for new trees and green infrastructure are prioritized for neighborhoods with the “lowest tree equity scores”—a formula based on race, poverty, and redlining data. The racially targeted tree-planting initiative goes hand-in-hand with the broader aim to ensure that “all residents” live in “healthy, climate resilient homes.”
It plans for a hard 10% cut in total vehicle miles traveled by 2030.
The plan sets a community-wide goal to reduce how much people drive by 10% in just five years—with strategies that include higher parking fees, reduced parking minimums, and big investments in bike lanes and car-share. The city aims to make infrastructure less friendly to drivers, with the expectation that it will lead to the more widespread use of public transit.
It includes more government regulations.
The plan lays out nearly 200 possible government actions. It lists strategies ranging from housing to transportation, from food to waste, from energy to land use. While all of these strategies are currently framed as “recommendations,” they could supply a pretext for later regulation.
The greater part of possible future regulatory burden is in the plan’s dedication to “advancing equitable outcomes and opportunities by leading with racial equity to address root causes of disparities.”
To address the root causes, the city must ensure that “people have the tools, resources and connections” to achieve completely equitable “life outcomes” for all citizens. This approach, the plan promises, “will advance our universal goal of being a resilient, low carbon city.”
It could be funded by taxpayer-backed financing schemes.
The plan introduces designs for a number of changes to city infrastructure and institutions, though it has little to say about how any of these changes will be paid for aside from speculation about state or federal grants.
There is, however, some speculation around city-created green energy “revolving funds,” on-bill financing, and public subsidies for green upgrades, with vague language about “exploring new revenue tools,” possibly including direct city financial help, such as rebates, grants, tax incentives, or low-interest loans.