Font ResizeSanta Clara County will soon ask residents living in the unincorporated areas to move beyond recycling to help our local environment. The Board of Supervisors plans to adopt a Green Building Ordinance in late October or early November that will require home building and remodeling to be environmentally sensitive.
Although county staff is still working on the details, the requirements will likely not become mandatory immediately and there will be exemptions for activity below a certain level.
Constructing or remodeling a home in an environmentally sensitive way has some major differences from the standard building process. Green building consumes far fewer natural resources by using recycled, rapidly-renewable and salvaged building materials. The homes themselves use much less energy and water compared to standard homes, and the construction methods and materials make the homes more durable. The construction process also generates much less waste, which means less material enters landfills.
The county's Green Building program will likely allow applicants for building permits the option of using either the Build it Green (BiG) or the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) systems. The Bay Area's Build it Green non-profit organization works to make green building standard practice in California and it has a checklist and point system. The U.S. Green Building Council has more than 15,000 members from across the building industry and it
The BiG system has five different categories of environmentally friendly practices and measures and it assigns points to each one. For a home to be considered environmentally friendly under the BiG approach, it must achieve at least 50 points with a certain number of points in each category. The home's energy efficiency must also be at least 15 percent greater than what the state building code requires. The construction process must also recycle at least 50 percent of its debris.
The preliminary approach that county staff presented to the Board establishes certain thresholds and proposes a number of exemptions. New homes larger than 1,200 square feet and less than 4,000 square feet must meet the BiG minimum requirements. New homes larger than 4,000 square feet would need to achieve one additional BiG point for every 100 square feet over 4,000 square feet up to a maximum of 150 points. New homes below 1,200 square feet, home additions less than 500 square feet and minor remodels would be exempt.
County staff has discussed implementing this program in phases with an initial period of voluntary compliance for each phase. Since most building projects in the unincorporated areas are single family residences, the county's program will begin with new residential construction. Staff presented a plan calling for the new residential requirements to become mandatory in July 2009 and major remodels mandatory in January 2011. A voluntary non-residential construction program may start in April 2009 and become mandatory in September 2009.
The county's Green Building Ordinance will benefit homeowners in many ways. Homes built to the ordinance's standards will consume 40 percent less energy and 50 percent less water than regular homes. The use of higher quality building materials and durable construction reduces replacement and repair costs. Environmentally friendly homes pose less of a health hazard from paints, carpets, and adhesives and they have better ventilation which reduces the risks of mold and mildew.
The passage of a Green Building Ordinance represents a breakthrough for Santa Clara County. For the first time, the county will require residents and developers in the unincorporated area to build in a way to reduce greenhouse gases and protect natural resources. I encourage everyone to embrace this new way of building, not only to benefit current county residents, but also future generations.
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Pete McHugh serves on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. He represents District Three, which includes Berryessa and Milpitas.
