Summary of the (first) Redlands Green Building Workshop

Written by: Benjamin Sibelman on Mar 11, 2007 12:27 AM EST

Linked to groups: Redlands DFA

 - The mayor, Jon Harrison, seemed convincingly interested in making green building a part of city policy, particularly the review criteria for new development permits.

- The first speaker, Mary Tucker, was the Supervising Environmental Services Specialist from San Jose, where they used to have a very small department but merged with the water and sewage treatment departments to form a sizeable group of 461 employees. 
   * She discussed a number of programs such as private-sector incentives for dense development, reducing fees and expediting review on green projects, and technical assistance and education programs.
   * Her department created a green building manual that is available on the US Green Building Council's website (usgbc.org, apparently an excellent resource, though I currently can't access it).
   * She also talked about what other major urban areas such as Alameda County and Wachington, DC are doing.  Detailed information on existing programs is also available at usgbc.org.
   * Then she went into a discussion of the USGBC's well-known LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards for green building.  Having LEED-accredited professionals around is apparently very helpful.
   * Currently, San Jose is trying to bring in green technology companies, particularly those involved in making advanced solar energy products.  Also, their city council is about to consider signing onto the US Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement!
   * The mayor asked Mary for specifics on refurbishing existing buildings, which is the main focus for the Redlands government itself (not many new city buildings are planned for the near future).

- The second speaker was Diane's friend Eric Shamp, who (for those who didn't know) is on the city Planning Commission and is also the Sustainable Design Director for HMC Architects.  He's done a lot of work with photovoltaic solar panel retrofits.
   * Eric's talk was all about the new LEED standard for overall neighborhood development (LEED-ND).  It's currently in pilot testing with official launch of the standard expected in 2009.
   * Partners for development of LEED-ND include the Natural Resources Defens Council, the Congress for New Urbanism, and three government agencies, the EPA, CDC, and NEA (I guess the standard may include public art projects...)
   * The standard includes 106 points in four areas (location, neighborhood pattern, green building of homes, and innovative design), as opposed to the five more specific areas for the other LEED standards (location, water use, energy, indoor air quality, and materials).  Certification only requires getting 40 of the 106 points, though presumably you could get Silver, Gold, or Platinum status for a neighborhood that did better.
   * The US Green Building Conference this year is in Chicago in November.
   * Nancy asked Eric if he could help in retrofitting the church with photovoltaics.

- The last speaker was Susan Longville from the CSUSB Water Resources Institute.  She is also the Planning Commissioner for san Bernardino, after having been a councilmember there for eight years.
   * Susan's talk was about water use guidelines, which she said are heavily influenced by land use patterns.
   * The Inland Empire Sustainable Watershed Program includes principles of green buliding, city ordinances and development codes, and uses San Bernardino as a model for the rest of the county.
   * Susan recommended the Ahwanhee Water Principles handbook.
   * There is some kind of regional workshop put on by someone named Celeste Cantou.  I didn't get the details.
   * The Department of Water Resources created an Alluvial Fan Task Force that got money from FEMA to develop "responsible" design principles for building on floodplains.  Following these principles will be voluntary.

- At the end of the workshop, we talked with the mayor and learned that Redlands will soon be updating its General Plan, but rather than bringing in some expert to design it for them, he hopes to get lots of "stakeholder input" from community members.  He sees our group's job as to bring together more people to discuss the environmental aspects of how the city should develop the new plan.  Hopefully we can bring some other groups to the next workshop.

- I talked to Councilman Gallagher, who was appreciative of the workshop and said he would look over the copy of the US Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement that I gave him.

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Location: Redlands, CA 92373