BlairBlog

when almost is deemed “good enough”

Posted on 09. Sep, 2009 by Blair in Uncategorized

i have heard it said that close only counts in slow dancing & hand grenades. well tonight at the huntington beach city council meeting we also learned from our community services director and our energy manager that close enough is good enough in building an “equivalent” to LEED certified building.

let me give some backstory. a few years ago when the market was up and land prices were riding high… the city council decided that they could get a good deal from a developer to build a senior center instead of paying a park in-lieu fee. the developer complied because the deal they got was less than what they would have paid (then) in fees. so the deal was struck and the location was chosen… 6.5 acres of prime central park real estate. the voters of huntington beach approved the funding mechanism and the location by a razor thin majority. since that time there has been battle after battle to try and define what this building will look like, how much it will cost to build, how the developer (who is now broke) is going to pay for it and since it is in a park, should it be a model of sustainable development.

back in december of 2007 the planning commission (full disclosure… I am an HB planning commissioner) voted to approve this project with a few changes from the staff recommendation. we voted to strike “strive to” from the statement “The project shall strive to achieve LEED Certification.” our intent was clear. we wanted a LEED certified building in the park. proponents cried that it would bust the budget… it could never work… why bother.

the council in february of 2008 then took up the issue. they added “strive to” back into the condition and thus the die was cast. the project would not end up a real LEED certified building.

flash forward to now. the economy is in the tank. the developer cannot build their project downtown, let alone the senior center. the city is cutting community service programs and staff… and the senior center is right on track to break ground this fall! staff brought back the final design before the council and asked them to accept the current design as “equivalent” to LEED silver. over the course of the meeting tonight we learned that the silver LEED equivalent is based on the older 2.2 LEED standard, which we could not get now because we did not file in july. (note: the fee in july would have been $2,000) we learned that our city staff did not want a true LEED building. most surprising was that our city energy manager was the loudest voice in opposition to LEED certification. during the debate a motion was made and seconded to require LEED silver certification, but was pulled and ended up in a vote to work to try and add as many green features as possible to get close to the older LEED standard.

so why does this bug me? well it is pretty simple. i want our city to be a model of cutting edge sustainable development. i would like for us to be leaders by example. the investment today (or really 2 years ago) in a design that would achieve LEED certification would pay for itself in the first decade of the building. not to mention it is the right thing to do when building in a park. i also believe that certification means something both for the building and for the city. it means we jumped through the hoop to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this building is a cut above other buildings. i have personally opposed the senior center in the park at every step of the way. it should be built elsewhere. we should not start till we have the money, and we should know how to fund the operation once built.

so… what say you? should it be LEED certified?