Los Angeles First With Private Sector Green Building Law

LOS ANGELES, California, April 23, 2008 (ENS) - In an effort to combat climate change in Los Angeles, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Tuesday signed the Private Sector Green Building Plan into law, setting the city on course to cut carbon emissions by an estimated 80,000 tons by 2012.

Developed by the Mayor's Office in partnership with City Council, the ordinance will create a series of requirements and incentives for developers to meet the US Green Building Council's LEED energy and design standards, the country's strictest environmental building standards.

LEED silver, gold and platinum certifications are awarded based on the level of environmental sustainability met by a developer.

"Our City is growing fast and growing up, and we're holding the private sector accountable to their commitment to be friends to our environment," said Mayor Villaraigosa.

"Already the City of Los Angeles has the largest, most aggressive municipal green building plan of any large city in America. Now it's time for green building to go private," he said.

Under the new law, the city will require all projects at or above 50,000 square feet or 50 units to comply with the general LEED-certified standard.

In exchange, the city will work with builders to speed up approvals and to remove obstacles in the municipal code for elements of sustainable building design, such as green rooftops, cisterns and permeable pavement.

If a builder commits to pursuing LEED silver accreditation, the city will add expedited processing through the Planning and Public Works Departments.

"This legislation puts Los Angeles squarely at the forefront of building green," said City Council President Eric Garcetti. "With it we will clean our air, clean our water, preserve our land, and lead the fight against global warming."

The mayor and council members and other stakeholders held an Earth Day news conference to introduce the new law at LA's greenest residential building - the Luma residential project, a 19-story high-rise in downtown's South Park neighborhood that has been certified as LEED Gold.

To reach Gold, Luma developers achieved high levels of water and energy efficiencies, improved indoor air quality and drought tolerant landscaping.

In addition to direct incentives, the law will require the city to train case managers as LEED accredited professionals. It will create one-stop checklists of all available city incentives to guide developers through the green building process.

A new cross-departmental Sustainability Team will be created under the program to encourage developers and city staff to jointly address issues arising on both a project basis and a policy level.

Meeting regularly with the public, the team will file quarterly reports to the mayor on the city's progress in implementing the Private Sector Green Building Initiative.

"Today, we are taking another great step toward becoming a greener, more sustainable city. We are already setting a high standard by creating municipal buildings with strict green standards and now we are asking the private sector to do the same in order to make a more significant impact on the quality of our environment here in Los Angeles," said Councilwoman Jan Perry, chair of the Energy and Environment Committee.

"The future of green industry is happening right here in Los Angeles with our green building program," said Councilmember Ed Reyes, who chairs the Planning and Land Use Management Committee.

"Green buildings reduce energy and water consumption, and improve air quality," said Reyes. "That translates into healthier communities and reduced water and power bills for our customers."

"Given that greenhouse gas emissions from buildings account for more than 40 percent of global warming pollution, the Los Angeles Green Building ordinance is a good first step towards building an energy-efficient, climate friendly sustainable city, said Global Green USA President Matt Petersen.

"While certainly not an end destination, it is important that Los Angeles has become the first big city to codify a private sector green building program," he said.

"Trammell Crow Company believes building green is good for business, building green is good for developers and building green is good for the City of Los Angeles," said Brad Cox, managing director of Trammell Crow and chairman of the Los Angeles Business Council.

The Green Building Plan is an integral part of the mayor's Green LA Plan unveiled in May 2007. The plan calls for the city to reduce its carbon footprint by 35 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. This goal goes beyond the targets set in the Kyoto Protocol and is the greatest reduction target of any large city in the United States.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.