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California mayors, city council members, county supervisors, city managers and other high-level department heads all come together in the middle of the breathtaking beauty of Yosemite National Park at the 29th Annual Building Livable Communities Conference in March 2020.
This popular conference always features a timely and inspirational agenda designed to provide California’s policymakers with tools and innovative solutions to address community needs.
2020 Yosemite Policymakers Conference
The Great Pivot: California at the Crossroads
We find ourselves today at a historic crossroads, where we have a chance to choose paths – in our housing, transportation and energy – that offer promising opportunities amid pressing perils that threaten the future of our communities. Pivoting now is the only way to ensure future prosperity, social equity and community resiliency.
The transportation path we pursue now will determine how we move from place to place in the future. The mobility landscape is rapidly evolving, and the decisions we make now can help ensure that our communities have a shared, electric, accessible, safe, people-powered mobility future that supports health, climate and social equity goals. Our ability to pivot away from the current preoccupation with personal cars will affect how much we do – or don’t – exacerbate environmental degradation, increase costs for families and communities, and expand social inequities.
We also need to pursue a different housing path. California needs 3.5 million new homes – affordable to a diverse spectrum of households and income levels – to close the gap in our housing supply. Our housing crossroads also presents us with an immediate imperative to fix to our expanding homelessness crisis.
The decisions of where and how we build those new homes over the next five years will shape our ability to curb the rise in vehicle miles traveled and reverse a trajectory that will continue to degrade natural and working lands, place people in areas of high wildfire risk, make traffic problems worse, unnecessarily increase infrastructure costs, and pollute our air and water. Making the right choices now can, taken together, improve the quality of life for everybody and make our communities more resilient, healthy and prosperous.
The third step we must take is how we power everything in our lives. Along with housing and transportation challenges, the energy sector is also experiencing widespread disruption and evolution – as we’ve seen with the recent PG&E bankruptcy and power shutoffs as well as the rapid growth of Community Choice Energy. Moreover, these energy impacts are affecting communities differently, unfairly. The gap between the richest and the poorest U.S. households is now the largest it has been in the past 50 years — despite low national unemployment and more than a decade of consecutive annual GDP growth.
As we make decisions about the places where we live and work, about how we get to and from those places, and about how we power our lives, we must also power – and empower – the equity of prosperity that makes our families and our communities healthy and strong.
From our individual and collective experiences, we know that the blueprint for the clearest path to our best future lies with local governments. Local governments invent, encourage and implement the solutions to many of California’s pressing challenges – from affordable housing to climate-change responses to the transitions in our energy and mobility sectors. With all of these important responsibilities, local leaders must come together at this historic crossroads to share their ideas and successes, and advance holistic, forward-thinking solutions.
The conference will take place from Thursday, March 5th to Sunday, March 8th. Please follow the link below to download the detailed final agenda.
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Take advantage of early-bird registration rates and register for the conference by December 18, 2019. Regular rates will be in effect starting on December 19, 2019, and a late fee will apply after February 5, 2020.
Refund requests will be honored if received in writing by the February 5, 2020 registration deadline. All refunds are subject to a $100 processing fee. Refunds will be issued via the original payment method used at the time of registration.
After February 5, 2020, NO REFUNDS will be offered.
After February 5, should you need to cancel and replace yourself (send a substitute if you can no longer attend), you must contact the conference organizers via email with the replacement contact information: rdana@lgc.org, no later than February 28, 2020.
| Early Bird Rates until December 18th | Regular Rates until February 5th | Late Registration Rates until March 2nd | |
| LGC Member | $450 | $500 | $550 |
| Non-LGC Member | $500 | $550 | $600 |
The 2020 Yosemite Policymakers Conference will be held at the Yosemite Valley Lodge in Yosemite National Park. Our room block is sold out and the Yosemite Lodge is sold out for the conference weekend. Below are the options for lodging accommodations for the conference.
Ahwahnee Hotel
There are still a few rooms available at the Ahwahnee; rooms range from $479.67 – $610.67 not including taxes and fees. The Ahwahnee is a nine-minute drive to the Yosemite Lodge, where the conference is being held. You can look at what lodging is available at https://www.travelyosemite.com/
Curry Village
Curry Village has Cabins with Baths and Stoneman Standard Room available Friday, March 6th and Saturday, March 7th. Curry Village is in the process of renovating all the food & beverage areas through the winter and will be closed during the conference. You will need to purchase food and beverages at the Yosemite Valley Lodge or at the Curry Village gift shop. Stoneman Standard rooms are $247 & Cabin with bath $178 not including taxes and fees. I would not recommend renting a tent or cabin without a bath at this time of year. Curry Village is an eight-minute drive to the Yosemite Lodge and you can look at what lodging is available at https://www.travelyosemite.com/
Yosemite View Lodge
The Yosemite View Lodge has River view rooms and Mountain view rooms available March 5th – 8th. Room range in price from $165.67 – $305.67 a night not including taxes or fees. Since the View Lodge is outside the Yosemite gate, you will need to keep your Park Gate receipt handy to show each time you enter the park. Once you have paid the Park Gate fee, your receipt is good for a week. The View Lodge is a 25-minute drive to the Yosemite Valley Lodge. You can look at what lodging is available at https://www.yosemiteresorts.us/
Reservation Policies
- All individual guest rooms must be canceled 7 days prior to arrival to receive a full refund.
- No-shows are considered late cancellations and are invoiced at first night’s stay (room, tax & fee)
- All guests will be required to check-in and provide a credit card or cash deposit for incidentals.
- Group check-in is 5:00 pm and check-out is 11:00 am.
- Pets are not allowed in any room.
- Quiet hours are 10:00pm – 7:00am.
We are looking for Conference Sponsors – agencies, organizations, foundations, and companies – that are leading the way in creating innovative solutions for increasing resiliency and implementing smart-growth strategies in a time of rapid change.
These high-profile sponsorship opportunities offer many ways to interact with local policymakers and underscore your commitment to making our communities more sustainable and resilient while also providing for people’s basic housing, transportation, food, and work needs.
To learn more about sponsorship opportunities, view the LGC Sponsorship Brochure or contact Ryan Dana (916) 448-1198 x309 / rdana@lgc.org for information on how to become a conference sponsor.
Thank you to our 2020 Conference Sponsors!
Sponsors
For questions on the conference program:
Ryan Dana
Event Associate
(916) 448-1198 ex 309
rdana@lgc.org
The Yosemite Policymakers Conference is presented by the Local Government Commission.
