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February 03, 2010 |
California Takes the Lead in Imposing Green Building Standards All new buildings in California will soon be required to be constructed as green buildings. On January 12, 2010, the California Building Standards Commission voted to adopt CALGREEN, the first comprehensive, statewide green building standards code in the country. The code's adoption is seen as an important step in California's legislative program of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by the year 2020. Effective as of January 1, 2011, CALGREEN will prescribe certain mandatory, minimum building standards, set forth a second tier of voluntary, aspirational standards, and allow cities and counties the flexibility to require compliance with even more stringent standards. Among the mandatory standards, CALGREEN requires:
Developers may choose to build to certain aspirational standards in order to qualify for a higher tier of CALGREEN compliance, possibly as an alternative to seeking a more costly private certification such as LEED. The existing infrastructure of state agencies and local officials now regulating development will also monitor compliance with and otherwise administer CALGREEN (theoretically without any major increase in local building permit and inspection fees). CALGREEN's biggest skeptics thus far have been some of the very same organizations traditionally on the forefront of sustainable development. Some charge that the mandatory provisions do not go far enough. Others doubt whether state and local officials have the expertise to monitor compliance effectively and suggest that CALGREEN's tier system is confusing, although such criticisms may be motivated in part by the self-interest of the lucrative certification industry, which will now apparently have to compete with the CALGREEN model. Expect other states and countries to watch the California experience with interest as they decide whether to enact similar green building codes of their own. A codified version of CALGREEN and specific guidance from the California Building Standards Commission have yet to be published. While the new code applies to all occupancy types, the requirements will not be uniform across all occupancy types. There are also questions as to whether a major rehab project will trigger CALGREEN regulation, how such CALGREEN regulations might affect a project which is underway but is being constructed in phases, and whether a developer of a project currently under construction could modify the project to satisfy the new requirements so as to obtain a CALGREEN-compliant designation. Schiff Hardin's Real Estate Practice Group is available to assist you if you should have any questions as to the application of such CALGREEN requirements to any projects you might be considering developing or have under development. ABOUT SCHIFF HARDIN LLP |