Category: green building

“Green” developers council?

Got an e-mail from developer David Smoots in response to the recent Citistates Report.

He proposes that developers, city officials and residents collaborate to find alternatives to sprawl.

He writes:

Our community must be prepared for a paradigm shift. It will require the collaboration of developers (I am one), city officials and citizenry to consider alternatives to the sprawling kind of development we’ve had in Charlotte for so long. In one recent national study, “Measuring the Market for Green Residential Development,” homebuyers admit we have to face the issue of environmental responsibility head-on. Nearly 38% strongly agree, and 41.2% somewhat agree, that “in order to protect the environment we will need big changes in the way we live.”

While New Urbanism has caught on over the past two decades, Charlotte should now prepare for the next step. One idea: Motivate the Urban Land Institute to implement a strategy among local members and push for the creation of a Sustainable Stewardship Council.

This council would work with citizenry, government and private entities on environmentally friendly development issues within our community. An involved SSC Council could help promote water strategies, energy strategies, transportation, health strategies, recycling and reuse of materials in rezoning, and permit-related activities. The upshot? Local real estate developers would become better community leaders.

Several things are notable about his suggestion. First, it sounds like a good idea. I mean, it couldn’t possibly hurt and it might help educate developers. Second, it’s further proof that at least some developers think (know?) that building “green” is a market niche that they can exploit. More and more customers are looking for “green.”

Is there a role for city and state regulations? Should city standards and zoning rules be changed to make them more environmentally sound? Note, this might not mean ADDING regulations so much as changing the ones we already have.

‘Extreme’: Higher taxes? Who pays?

Plenty of folks reading the previous post worried that the King family might not have money for the higher taxes they’ll pay. Some suggested the day care they run isn’t licensed. It is, and has a four-star rating.

Newsroom colleague and great writer Elizabeth Leland, apparently a Naked City reader, e-mailed me with a note pointing to Mark Washburn’s article Saturday about the size of the house and the family’s upcoming bills.

A pertinent excerpt is below, or you can read the story online. Mark’s story doesn’t address the questions of “green” building, though some who left comments
say the show makes a point of using energy-efficient techniques. Does anyone have any information?

What is not generally known is that producers often set aside money to ensure families can afford their gift homes. Community fundraisers, such as this week’s concert at SouthPark, help underwrite the accounts.

“Most family mortgages are paid off,” says Didiayer Snyder, one of the designers on the Charlotte build. Also, money is put in escrow for things such as power bills and other expenses, including scholarships.

In the case of the Kings, they are planning to finish degrees at UNC Charlotte and the show might make that part of the package, but it probably won’t be known until the show airs in October.

“We do not build McMansions,” says Diane Korman, senior producer with Lock and Key Productions in Hollywood, which creates the shows for ABC. “Houses need to be affordable for the residents.”

… Korman said this week that the Charlotte project has been designed to fit in with the Windsor Park neighborhood, which is mostly one- and two-story brick homes. Lavish palaces are not the goal of the program, she said.

“Green” conventions? And other news

Should Charlotte’s convention center start trying to capture the “green convention” business? Successful event planner Mary Tribble, who’s back from a national conference on the subject, said Tuesday she believes more national conventions will aim their business at cities and facilities that can market themselves as “green.” The Charlotte Convention Center is not LEED-certified, of course. [LEED = Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.] Nor will the new NASCAR Hall of Fame be. (See my May 23 posting, below.)

Tribble says she and Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority honcho Tim Newman are forming a task force to see what can be done in Charlotte.

— In Wake County, even conservative tax-watchdoggers are pushing FOR a land transfer tax to generate money to build schools. Click here for the N&O’s story.

Excerpt: Even former county commissioner Phil Jeffreys, speaking as a member of the fiscally conservative Wake County Taxpayers Association, was on board for a transfer tax. “We need to make sure we go to the legislature and really push on real estate transfer fees,” said Jeffreys, who was voted off the board in the last election after voting “no” on many spending proposals.

— In fast-growing Chatham County, county commissioners on Monday enacted a moratorium on residential development. Click here for the story.

— Courtesy of one of my favorite planning info sources, Planetizen.com, here’s a link to a Wall Street Journal article about the trauma subprime loans are causing in many minority neighborhoods, including a long-established middle-class area of Detroit. According to the article, so many homeowners are facing foreclosure now that it may well erase any gains in homeownership the nation has seen. (And don’t forget the Observer’s coverage, complete with online map of local foreclosures. Here’s a link.)

–And finally, also from Planetizen, here’s a piece in which the author takes aim at Reason magazine’s assumptions about mass transit versus road-building.

A “green” NASCAR Hall of Fame?

If they hadn’t kept using the word “sustainable” …

After a lot of talk about the importance of “sustainable” designs, having to do with the NASCAR Hall of Fame, it turns out the city (the owner of the building) hasn’t pushed for a “green” building — i.e., one designed to use fewer resources, fewer polluting resources, and to use less energy in both construction and operation. And it doesn’t look as if it’s going to.

George Miller (at right) of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, the firm designing the new NASCAR Hall of Fame, gave a briefing at Wednesday’s monthly AIA (American Institute of Architects) luncheon. Among the interesting details — e.g., the “ribbon” wrapping around the building will be stainless steel and no, they haven’t yet figured out structural details — he talked about making the building “sustainable.”

Earlier, Mayor Pat McCrory, in accepting an award from the AIA chapter for his work on behalf of what architects call “the built environment,” said his overall philosophy for development is, “Do it right the first time and make it sustainable.”

I couldn’t stop myself. During the Q/A period I asked Miller whether the Hall of Fame would be LEED certified. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a rating system devised by the U.S. Green Building Council to encourage builders, developers and architects to build more environmentally benign buildings. Only two N.C. buildings are listed as certified — none in Charlotte — although ImaginOn and the Davidson College admissions office are among a number of LEED-registered buildings in this area.

Miller sort of hemmed and hawed and said, “We haven’t talked in great detail,” and that they were going to try to incorporate as many LEED techniques as possible.

Luckily for me, I was sitting smack next to City Engineer Jim Schumacher, who’s the lead staff person on the Hall project. After all, the city is Miller’s client in this. I asked Schumacher if the city had talked about LEED certification with the architects. No, he said. We told them, he said, “Do what makes sense.”

Schumacher said the mechanical systems would meet LEED standards.

That leaves out techniques such as daylighting, reducing construction debris and using recycled materials. Some of those things, such as daylighting, aren’t just feel-good issues, but have significant long-term implications for future operating costs.

I phoned Anthony Foxx, who chairs the City Council’s Environmental Committee. He confirmed there’d been no discussion on the full council about whether to require/suggest/wish for a LEED-registered or certified project. “I did raise the issue with Engineering and Property Management,” Foxx told me. “They pushed back on it, primarily concerned about the tightness of the budget.”

LEED isn’t a perfect instrument, and anyone who’s familiar with it would agree. But it pushes builders and designers to consider a building’s life-cycle costs along with short-term construction costs, and it helps educate them in new technologies and materials.

And it isn’t necessarily more expensive. A Statesville elementary school that is LEED-certified was built for no more money than a regular elementary school, school district officials have said.

So, Mayor Pat, sir, and your colleagues on the council: How about pushing for the Hall of Fame to be LEED-certified? The city is the client, and the city should demand the best long-term value for its buildings.