February 12, 2008
City Council Meeting: January
8, 2008
Agenda Item: 7-B
To: Mayor and City Council
From:
Subject: Resolution Making Findings of Local
Climatic, Geological, and Topographical Conditions as Required to Adopt Local
Amendments to the California Building Standards Code; and Introduction and
First Reading of an Ordinance Modifying Santa Monica Municipal Code (SMMC)
Chapters 8.108, 7.60, and Sections 9.04.10.04.100, and 9.04.10.04.110 to Update
and Amend Green Building Requirements in the City.
Recommended
Action
Staff
recommends that the City Council introduce for first reading an ordinance
modifying Santa Monica Municipal Code (SMMC) Chapters 8.108, 7.60, and Sections
9.04.10.04.100, and 9.04.10.04.110 to update and amend green building
requirements in the City. The proposed ordinance is included as Attachment
A. Staff also recommends that the City’s
Green Building Grant Program be extended to include buildings certified under
the LEED for New Construction, LEED for Homes, and LEED for Commercial
Interiors ratings systems.
Executive
Summary
On March
20, 2007, Council supported staff recommendations to update and amend the green
building requirements set forth in the Green Building Ordinance, the
Construction and Demolition Waste Ordinance, and the landscaping and irrigation
standards in the Zoning Code, Chapters 8.108, 7.60, and Sections 9.04.10.04.100
and 9.04.10.04.110 respectively of the SMMC.
On January
13, 2004, Council approved the creation of the Green Building Grant
program. At the time, no LEED rating
system existed for single family residences.
Council directed staff to return with an amendment to the program to
include single family residences as soon as a LEED rating system was
available. The LEED for Homes rating
system ended its pilot phase in November 2007 and several projects have already
applied or been certified in the City.
Discussion
The attached ordinance amends and modifies the Green
Building Ordinance, Chapter 8.108 of the SMMC.
The State of
The current Green Building Ordinance requires new buildings
to utilize four major construction materials with recycled content. Other green building materials, such as
zero-VOC paint, support the intent of this requirement but may not contain recycled
materials. The proposed ordinance
expands the list of approved green construction materials and requires the use
of five green construction materials.
The proposed list of approved green construction materials is included
as Attachment B. The proposed ordinance
also requires single-family and duplex construction, previously exempt, to
comply with all measures of the Green Building Ordinance.
There
exist several requirements in other parts of the Municipal Code that are
primarily concerned with environmental and green building standards. To facilitate management and administration
of green building requirements in the City, the proposed ordinance relocates
some of those requirements from their current places in the SMMC to Chapter
8.108, the Green Building Ordinance.
Affected portions of the Code include Chapter 7.60, Construction and
Demolition Material Waste Management Plan, Section 9.04.10.04.100, Landscape
Maintenance and Protection, and Section 9.04.10.04.110, Water Conservation
Standards.
In
addition to its relocation to Chapter 8.108, Chapter 7.60 will be amended to
update its performance security requirements.
Currently, demolition projects are required to submit a performance
security to ensure compliance with the section.
The performance security is set at 3% of project costs, subject to a
minimum of $1,000 and a maximum of $30,000.
Evidence suggests that a significant number of projects are forfeiting
the performance security rather than comply with the City’s C&D Waste
diversion requirements. The proposed
ordinance removes the maximum performance security, encourages salvage audits,
excludes inert material (soil, rocks, etc.) from diversion calculations, and
ties the performance security to project square footage rather than cost. In addition, staff recommends that the
required diversion rate for C&D waste be increased from 60% to 65%. The Sustainable City Plan sets a target of
70% diversion of C&D waste to be achieved by 2010. The City has already identified several waste
management facilities with a verified diversion rate of at least 65%, and so
this requirement can be easily met at the present. It is anticipated that the City will work
with waste management facilities to achieve a 70% diversion rate by the 2010
target deadline. These changes will help
the City achieve its resource conservation goals established in the Sustainable
City Plan.
In
addition to relocating them to Chapter 8.108,
the proposed ordinance will update the requirements currently existing
in Sections 9.04.10.04.100 and 9.04.10.04.110 to require that irrigation and
landscaping plans be approved via plan check and inspection during the
permitting process. It will also further
clarify terms and standards to be used in approval of water-efficient landscaping
and irrigation systems. These changes
will help the City reach its goals for water use reduction established in the
Sustainable City Plan.
Per
Council request, staff recommends that the Green Building Grant program be
expanded to include buildings certified under the LEED for Homes ratings
system. On January
13, 2004, Council approved the creation of the program with the request
that single family residences be eligible for the grant program as soon as a
LEED rating system was available. The
LEED for Homes rating system ended a successful pilot phase in November
2007. The LEED for Homes rating system
applies to single family residences and smaller multifamily residences. While Council only requested that the program
extend to single family residences, staff recommends that any building
certified under the LEED for Homes system be eligible for the grant. This would encourage builders of duplexes or
townhomes to pursue greener construction.
The existing grant award amounts are as follows:
·
LEED Certified - $20,000
·
LEED Silver - $25, 000
·
LEED Gold - $30,000
·
LEED Platinum - $35,000
Staff
recommends that the grant award amounts for buildings certified under the LEED for
Homes rating system be structured as follows:
|
LEED
Level |
Single Family Residence |
Multi-family |
|
Certified |
Certified - $3,000 |
$2,000 per unit |
|
Silver |
Silver - $4,000 |
$2,500 per unit |
|
Gold |
Gold - $6,000 |
$3,000 per unit |
|
Platinum |
Platinum - $8,000 |
$3,500 per unit |
This distribution is recommended because certification costs are
anticipated to be lower for multifamily units.
Larger multi-family residential projects may be certified under LEED for
New Construction rather than LEED for Homes.
If the multi-family grants are capped at 10 units, the maximum amount of
available grant funding would be the same under either rating system.
Planning Commission Action
On
November 7, 2007, the Planning Commission heard and discussed the proposed
changes to the Zoning Ordinance, which is under their purview. The Commission unanimously passed a motion to
recommend that Council approve the proposed text amendment as presented. The Planning Commission also took the
opportunity to comment on the water-efficient landscaping requirements being
proposed for SMMC Chapter 8.108. While
this Section was not directly under their purview, the substance of the
proposed language for Section 8.108 was directly related to the sections of the
Zoning Ordinance that were being proposed for relocation to Section 8.108.
The following is a summary of the Planning Commission comments and
staff response to those comments:
1) The Planning Commission would like the
landscaping requirements to apply to any new landscape or irrigation system
installed in the City, not just those installed as a part of a new construction
project. Staff agrees with this in
concept, but believes that enforcement will be difficult to administer. Staff is working on ways to enforce such a
requirement, but believes that using the existing building permit mechanism
will be most effective at the present.
2) The Planning Commission would like the
landscaping requirements to apply to substantial remodels as well as new
construction. Staff agrees with this
assessment and has included language to make these requirements applicable to
substantial remodels as defined in SMMC 8.84.040. This is consistent with the current Green
Building Ordinance requirements and also with the current Urban Runoff
Mitigation requirements.
3) The Planning Commission would like the
landscaping requirements to apply to single family residences. Staff agrees and although only the pertinent
sections of the proposed Green Building Ordinance were presented to the
Planning Commission, the full text contains a provision that would require
compliance of single family residences.
4) The Planning Commission suggested that
the requirement for an 18” setback from hardscape for sprinkler heads in
proposed section 8.108.10(d) would not be feasible to meet without killing
plants in that setback area. The
Planning Commission questioned why 90-degree or 180-degree sprinkler heads
would not be sufficient to prevent water waste via overspray. Staff disagrees with this assessment. While 90- and 180-degree sprinkler heads are
designed to prevent overspray, in practice these devices consistently produce
overspray without fastidious maintenance and constant adjustment. In addition, there are several landscape and
planting designs, as well as subsurface irrigation systems, that can be used as
viable alternatives to meet this requirement.
5) The Planning Commission would like to
ensure that parkways are included in the landscaping requirements. While the parkway requirements are not
specifically mentioned in the Code, the parkway requirements are included in
the Guidelines referenced in 8.108.100(a).
6) The Planning Commission suggested that
the language in existing SMMC 9.04.10.04.100(j) would force an owner to replace
diseased or dead plant materials with in kind plant materials, regardless of
how water intensive those plant materials might be. The Planning Commission suggested that an
exception be allowed for owners to replace plant materials with low water
use. Staff agrees and has proposed
language to this effect.
7) The Planning Commission was concerned
that proposed section 8.108.100(g) would limit the potential sites for tree
plantings, especially in areas where soil is underlain by concrete. Staff has determined that soil permeability
is important for tree growth, and that while potential tree planting sites
might in rare circumstances be limited, those sites without adequate permeable
soil would be detrimental to the long term health of a tree, and perhaps
another planting should be considered for those areas. This permeable soil requirement is not a
proposed modification, but currently exists in the Code.
Building
and Safety Commission Action
On
September 26, 2007, the Building and Safety Commission reviewed and commented
on the proposed ordinance. By a
unanimous vote, a motion to recommend the proposed ordinance as written failed
to pass. Staff returned to the Building
and Safety Commission on October 17, 2007 with modified ordinance language for
further discussion and to address concerns previously raised by the Building
and Safety Commission. In the modified
ordinance language, staff incorporated the Building and Safety Commission’s
recommendation to establish a measurable and enforceable standard for
determining compliance with the requirement of solar heating for pool
water. The proposed language was
approved by the Building and Safety Commission on October 17, 2007 with the
following amendments:
• 8.108.020 subsection (a) – reinstate this
section;
• 8.108.020 subsection (b) – add at the end
of this subsection the following, “ one and two family dwellings and their
accessory structures shall be subject to section 8.108.040”;
• 8.108.030 – revise to have only the
original language reinstated and in the eighth line at the end of the first
sentence after the word “publication” insert the following words, “or a list
provided by EPWM Director to be modified by public process”;
• 8.108.040 subsection (b) - insert phrase
“not powered by renewable resources” after the word “heaters” and before the
word “shall” in the second sentence; and
• 8.108.060 subsection (a)(2)3(a) – revise to
include a prescriptive solution for water heat recovery systems provided by
staff.
The
Building and Safety Commission noted concerns with several parts of the
proposed ordinance. The Building and
Safety Commission felt that the requirements of the proposed ordinance are too
onerous to require single family residences to comply, with the notable
exception of requiring pools to be heated with solar energy. The Building and Safety Commission also felt
that the proposed expanded green building materials checklist was too
restrictive. The Building and Safety
Commission noted that appliances frequently are not installed at the time that
the Certificate of Occupancy is issued, and so the proposed requirement for
such appliances to be Energy Star rated should either be removed or should be
modified to specify that only appliances installed at the time of final
inspection would be required to achieve an Energy Star rating. The Building and Safety Commission also felt
that the option of installing a drain water heat recovery system for compliance
with proposed energy requirements was not specific enough to enable
verification during plan check and inspection.
Staff
feels that since the City has had green building requirements in effect for
seven years, and since green building practices and strategies have become far
more common and well known, and since environmental issues of energy use, water
use, and indoor air quality continue to grow ever more pressing, it would not
be onerous nor inappropriate to require single family residences to comply with
the proposed green building requirements.
Staff also notes that the expanded green building materials checklist
specifically incorporates the materials most commonly used to comply with the
existing recycled-content construction materials requirements, and in addition
allows flexibility for compliance using materials not specifically listed on
the checklist, subject to staff review and approval. Staff agrees with the Building and Safety
Commission’s concerns regarding appliances and has modified the proposed
amendment to refer to appliances installed at time of final inspection. Staff understands the Building and Safety
Commission’s concern regarding drain water heat recovery systems, and while no
standard currently exists for such equipment, staff will work to develop such a
standard that is simple, enforceable, and does not deliberately preclude the
potential for new technologies in this emerging field.
Task
Force on the Environment Action
On
December 17, 2007, the Task Force on the Environment passed a motion in support
of the proposed ordinance.
LEED Requirements
and Standard 189
On March 20, 2007,
in addition to supporting the recommendations outlined above, the Council requested
that staff further investigate the establishment of LEED certification for
private sector construction projects greater than 10,000 square feet. Staff proposes that there are several reasons
why such a requirement would be difficult to enact and enforce and that a
better alternative would be to implement code requirements that meet the intent
of LEED credits. The American Society of
Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), in conjunction
with the US Green Building Council and several other standards-development
bodies, are in the process of developing a set of green building requirements
in code-friendly language known as Standard 189. This standard is intended to eventually be a
prerequisite for LEED certification, and is scheduled to be released by the
summer of 2008 as a model for jurisdictions to adopt.
The LEED program is,
and was always intended to be, a voluntary certification process. Indeed, the
handful of cities across the country that have implemented private sector LEED
requirements have invariably required that projects be “LEED certifiable” or
“built to LEED standards” rather than requiring actual certification. As a result, those same cities have
essentially put the burden of verification on their own staff, and they
frequently have established dedicated staff to handle this verification. Staff recommends that the City should look to
adopt the standards set forth in Standard 189 rather than require LEED
certification of new construction.
Environmental Analysis
The Council finds that the adoption of this ordinance is exempt from the
provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act pursuant to CEQA
Guidelines Section 15061(b)(3) which states that projects are exempt when it
can be determined with certainty that there is no potential for causing a
significant effect on the environment.
This ordinance establishes standards for the design, construction, and
demolition of buildings, landscaping, and irrigation systems that will reduce human exposure to noxious materials, conserve
non-renewable energy and scarce materials,
minimize the ecological impact of energy and materials used, support the
use of renewable energy and materials that are sustainably harvested, and
protect, preserve and restore local air, water, flora and fauna.
Public Outreach
Public outreach concerning updated green building requirements
will be conducted pending Council review and approval of the various proposed
requirements. Public noticing and
contact with the Building and Safety Department will inform builders and
developers of new requirements. The City
has had existing green building requirements for years, and as the new
requirements mostly build on existing requirements, public outreach regarding
the transition should be easily achieved.
Financial Impacts &
Budget Actions
The
above recommendations will not have an impact on the City’s budget. The funds originally allocated to the Green
Building Grant Program on January 13, 2004 remain unchanged; only the grant award amounts will be
modified.
Prepared by:
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Approved: |
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Forwarded to Council: |
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|
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Craig Perkins Director
– Environmental and Public Works
Management |
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P. City Manager |