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November 8th, 2010
Petaluma City Council
11 English Street
Petaluma,CA 94952
Dear Mayor Torliatt and Council Members,
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The State of California 's introduction of the mandatory CalGreen
building standard offers a great opportunity to make green building
standards both consistent and ambitious throughout : Sonoma county.
This will make permitting easier for planning departments and builders
while moving towards our long -term greenhouse gas reduction goals.
CalGreen requires all new.buildings comply with its Basic standard,
which is pretty much the California Building Code. CalGreen then
defines a Tier One and Tier Two, which contain optional actions for.a
higher level of green building.
Comparisons of CalGreen to previous Build it Green (BIG) and LEED
point systems are difficult because the checklists of building practices
are not the same in all cases.
Some cities in Sonoma- County have already adopted ambitious
standards using these point systems. Let's not Lose ground in setting a
common standard for all cities and unincorporated areas in the county.
It seems that the Tier I requirements under residential get us to within
5 points average of the 66 points under-BIG. And we're aware that the
City of Santa Rosa commissioned a committee to come up with a LEED
equivalent, and they found. that two electives per category under Tier I
would give a slight. variance in either direction on the LEED scale. We
also recognize that if all the cities in the county adopted the same
standards, we feel we'd have a much better chance of achieving
compliance with a strong, yet manageable green building program for
new construction.
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We recommend that all jurisdictions in the county adopt the ,same
standard of mandatory requirements within CalGreen as follows::
Residential: Basic + 'Tier One Required
Commercial: Basic + Tier One Required'
We are also strongly recommending that the council .require
recycling /salvage of construction debris to the Tier II I'evel of
75% diversion, as a standalone requirement for both
residential and commercial: construction. We feel that this item is
cost'effective, and is a direction that we've been heading in as a
County for quite some time. `Our recommendation would be for this to
be implemented alongside CalGreen and not be counted as the
elective under CalGreen, so that the developer would have. to choose
another elective under the Material Conservation and Resource
Efficiency section. Staff estimates this would be the equivalent of
adding an additional 2 points under BIG, which will get us closer to '
staying equal to current standards using the new system.
This approach will not guarantee an exact equivalent of our current
standards; but we are hopeful that by having all the cities using the
same green building guidelines, we will continue to be 'readers in the
region and state on green building for new. construction. The state may
also `ramp up" the requirements in three years, and the public will
have the opportunity to participate in these regular reviews, unlike the
closed systems of LEED and BIG that were closed to public
participation.
Our organizations, Sierra Club, Greenbelt Alliance, Accountable
Development Coalition and Sonoma County Conservation Action, have
been working on this policy issue for the past 4 years and beyond. We
humbly request that you follow the lead of'Santa Rosa and implement
standards that can be applied. in all the jurisdictions within iSonorna
County. We feel our recommendations are reasonable and very
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achievable within the development community, as well as in terms of
user friendliness for the municipal building inspectors.
Thank you for considering these amendments to CalGreen that will
keep our county and cities in the forefront of environmental planning.
Sincerely,
Dennis Rosatti Suzanne Doyle
Executive Director, SCCA Sierra Club
'Amanda Bornstein Ben Boyce
Greenbelt Alliance Accountable Development Coalition
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