After granting partial summary judgment to the plaintiffs last year, the District of New Mexico has ruled on a fresh set of summary judgment motions and effectively enjoined the City of Albuquerque from implementing amendments to its Energy Conservation Code.
Tag Archives | AHRI v. City of Albuquerque
Court Grants Summary Judgment to Defendants in BIAW et al. v. Washington State Building Code Council
The Western District of Washington’s decision will allow disputed amendments to the Washington State Energy Code to take effect.
District of New Mexico Rules on Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgment in AHRI et al. v. City of Albuquerque
United States District Court Judge Martha Vazquez has ruled on a motion for summary judgment filed by the plaintiffs back in September of 2009 that certain portions of Albuquerque’s Energy Conservation Code are preempted by federal legislation.
Building Industry Association of Washington Files Federal Lawsuit to Block Amended State Energy Code
On the heels of the lawsuit filed at the LEED Gold-hopeful Riverhouse here in New York City comes another green building-related litigation, this time on the West Coast and filed on May 25 by the Building Industry Association of Washington against the pending enactment of certain amendments to Washington’s State Energy Code.
Toronto to Mandate Green Roofs for Most New Construction
Notwithstanding many of the persistent- and still emerging- concerns over the increased risks from their installation, Toronto is on the verge of becoming the first city in North America to mandate green roofs for most types of new construction. By a vote of 36-2 which, according to the National Post, “was adopted after remarkably little debate on the floor of council,” the sweeping legislation requires green roofs on all residential buildings over 6 stories, schools, affordable housing developments, commercial, and industrial buildings.
SB 1473: El Dorado County Fighting California Green Building Legislation
In the aftermath of last year’s AHRI et al. v. City of Albuquerque litigation, there has been an increased level of discussion with respect to how municipalities and states should craft green building policy and legislation. Although I have not been following what’s been taking place in California all that closely, a recent article in the Sacramento Bee noting one California county’s reaction to a newly enacted piece of state-level green building legislation caught my eye. California’s Senate Bill 1473 took effect on January 1 and requires cities and counties in California to collect, on behalf of California’s Building Standards Commission, a building permit application fee. The fee is based on the building’s valuation as determined by the pertinent local building official and is assessed at $1.00 for every $25,000.00 of value. Cities and counties are entitled to keep up to 10 percent of the fee in order to cover their own administrative and enforcement costs; the rest of the funds are sent to a special revolving fund established by SB 1473 which the Commission will use to “fund development of statewide building standards, with emphasis on green building standards.” Officials in El Dorado County (which is about halfway between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe) believe that the fee is illegal, calling it “a tax without calling it a tax.”
Green Building Litigation Notable Omission From CoStar’s Top 10 Green Building News Stories of 2008
Andrew Burr of the CoStar Group recently listed his top ten green building stories from 2008. I thought a glaring omission from his compilation was his failure to include any discussion of either of the green building litigations that surfaced during the course of the year. Shaw Development v. Southern Builders and AHRI et al. v. City of Albuquerque may ultimately become seminal green building law cases, so I was disappointed that Burr’s list focused on mostly cosmetic, feel-good stories like “the LEED economy” and “green building trumps recession,” the latter of which has most certainly not been true in New York City over the past couple of months as a number of green projects have stalled or been canceled outright.
