Sustainability Action Plan — Palm Bay, Florida

The Palm Bay Sustainability Action Plan is the city's guide for sustainability and resiliency work, adopted by the Palm Bay City Council on September 16, 2021 and organized into five elements.

The City of Palm Bay sustainability page states that Council adopted the plan on September 16, 2021 as a foundation and guidance for the city's sustainability and resiliency efforts, and that it also offers guidance to residents and community stakeholders (City of Palm Bay Sustainability). The plan was written by the Palm Bay Sustainability Advisory Board with city staff and Sustainability Interns from Florida Tech, and its five elements came out of the board's own discussions (2021 plan, page 4).

Each element sets objectives for three audiences: Palm Bay city government, local businesses and the wider community. City staff and the board intended the plan to be reviewed at least annually, and one of its primary goals is an updated city Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory on a recurring schedule (2021 plan, page 6). Unlike the 2010 master plan, the plan's authors wrote, it looks beyond Palm Bay municipal operations to individual residents and the community (2021 plan, page 4).

Palm Bay's goal is 100 percent clean energy in city operations by 2035, a target written into the duties City Council approved for the Sustainability Advisory Board, not a mandate on Palm Bay homes or businesses.

The board's listed duties include developing an environmental Sustainability Plan for city operations with a goal of achieving one hundred percent clean energy by 2035, tracking the plan's implementation, and giving the Palm Bay City Council an annual report (2021 plan, page 4). The Built Environment element then sets three goals: reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, invest in clean, renewable energy, and align city planning with sustainability and resiliency goals (2021 plan, page 10).

Under the first goal, Palm Bay city government is to lead by cutting emissions in its own facilities, benchmark city owned buildings for energy and water use, set a net zero carbon standard for new municipal buildings, and advocate for federal and state policies to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035 with focus on buildings (2021 plan, page 10).

The renewable energy goal is mostly about solar in Palm Bay. Its first objective is to commit to becoming a SolSmart designated community, making solar faster, easier and more affordable for Palm Bay residents and businesses to install; others call for an online solar permitting checklist, a review of zoning codes that block residential solar, community solarize campaigns, the Solar and Energy Loan Fund for low to moderate income households, and PACE financing (2021 plan, page 11). Permit steps for a rooftop array are covered on the Palm Bay solar panel permits page.

Palm Bay's sustainability record starts in 2008, when the Palm Bay Utilities Department became the first public or private utility in Florida to earn ISO 14001 certification for both its water and wastewater treatment facilities.

The 2010 Sustainability Master Plan, led by the Palm Bay Utilities Department, was an inward look at municipal operations: environment, buildings and facilities, utilities, transportation, waste management and procurement (2021 plan, page 3). In 2009 the city was certified a Green Local Government by the Florida Green Building Coalition, and the three-story City Hall Annex completed in 2011 was LEED-certified. The 2018 Honeywell contract covered lighting, water conservation, a cool roof retrofit, chilled water and air handling systems, building automation and programmable thermostats (2021 plan, page 3).

Beyond energy, the Palm Bay plan lists objectives such as native plant borders on city ponds, rain barrels with the Marine Resources Council, electric city vehicles and an end to single use plastics in city facilities.

For land and water, Palm Bay city government objectives include retrofitting existing retention and detention ponds with a 10 to 15 foot native plant border to filter pollutants, treating Palm Bay canals as wildlife corridors, and expanding stormwater capture with rain barrels through the Marine Resources Council and Indian River Lagoon groups (2021 plan, page 7). The plan describes Palm Bay as bounded by the Indian River Lagoon and Turkey Creek Sanctuary on the east and the St. Johns River and Three Forks Marsh Conservation Area on the west (2021 plan, page 3).

Transportation objectives ask Palm Bay to replace aging city owned vehicles with electric vehicles and to install charging stations at city buildings, facilities and parks, using solar canopies where practical (2021 plan, page 15). Waste objectives start with eliminating single use plastics in Palm Bay city facilities and at city sponsored events and go on to a pay per use program for trash that charges less to households producing less (2021 plan, page 19) and a Recycling One Stop for materials that cannot go in the single stream system (2021 plan, page 20).

The education element is where Palm Bay residents meet the plan most directly. It calls for an annual sustainability fair promoting local co-ops, solar installers and farmers, and for monthly events such as trash pickups and tree plantings with partner groups (2021 plan, page 23). The Palm Bay Sustainability Advisory Board's minutes record a rain barrel workshop on the program for the 2023 fair (board minutes, February 22, 2023) and vendor planning for the 2024 fair (board minutes, March 27, 2024).

The Palm Bay Sustainability Advisory Board, staffed by Public Works, oversees the plan, and in April 2025 it began rewriting sections and sent a revised draft to city staff.

The board was created in 2018 with seven members to advise the Palm Bay City Council, City Manager and staff on pollution reduction, water quality, community education and local climate risk; it struggled to reach quorum until September 2019 (2021 plan, page 4). Before adoption, the City Manager reviewed the draft with the board on June 23, 2021 and introduced a change in language from green guidelines to low impact development (board minutes, June 23, 2021). The board then moved its presentation to the August 19, 2021 City Council meeting (board minutes, June 23, 2021, page 3).

Hands-on projects followed. The board's March 27, 2024 minutes describe a volunteer planting at Hardin Lane Pond, also called the Basin 13 Pond, scheduled for 4:00 p.m. on April 20, 2024, along with planning for the 2024 Sustainability Fair (board minutes, March 27, 2024).

The plan came up for review again in 2025. At an April 10, 2025 workshop in the City Hall Council Chambers, the board kept the waste objectives but agreed to rephrase them for clarity and measurability (workshop minutes, April 10, 2025). On April 23, 2025 it reviewed the energy and buildings section, reached a consensus to remove certain sections, agreed to review local zoning codes to facilitate solar access, and forwarded the revised plan to city staff (board minutes, April 23, 2025). On October 12, 2026 the city sustainability page still linked the plan adopted in 2021 (City of Palm Bay Sustainability). Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the City of Palm Bay sustainability page and Sustainability Advisory Board minutes.