After bids were opened for a 14,000-square-foot LEED Platinum building at a Silicon Valley community college at 20 percent over budget, the project’s architect has identified LEED-related risks as the primary factor.
Tag Archives | California
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.”
San Francisco’s Proposed Green Building Legislation: Progressive or Plain LEED Creep?
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has proposed some of the country’s toughest green building legislation applicable to private construction.
Schwarzenegger Vetoes California Green Building Legislation
Governor Schwarzenegger has vetoed the trio of green building bills which we presented here a few weeks ago. AB 888 would have required most commercial buildings in California to earn LEED Gold by January 1, 2013, while the other two bills (ABs 1058 and 35) were to apply to homes and public buildings, respectively. The […]
LEED Creep: Gaia Napa Valley Hotel Receives Gold Rating from USGBC
Back in December, I wrote about LEED creep in the context of the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel, which at the time, and after opening in November, was waiting on its LEED certification from USGBC in order to obtain a $1 million rebate for hotel occupancy tax revenues from the American Canyon, California City Council. The […]