Los Angeles Buildings Go Green

ALICE WALTON

Major developments and some residential buildings will have to be built to meet federal and local environmental standards under an ordinance unanimously approved today by the Los Angeles City Council.

The "Private Sector Green Building Plan" establishes mandatory minimum standards for projects that add 50 or more dwelling units and/or 50,000 square feet of floor area.

Those projects will have to meet environmental standards set by the U.S. Green Building Council. Municipal buildings are already required to meet environmental standards. The city's new plan will also require developers to pay an extra $268 application fee for each project that is subject to the requirements.

Of that fee, $68 will pay for Planning Department staff to review building plans. The remaining $200 will go toward an independent auditor who will review projects on a random basis, city officials said.

"This is our chance now to go green," said Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed the ordinance into law at an afternoon news conference.

"Our city is growing fast and growing up, and we're holding the private sector accountable to their commitment to be friends to our environment," Villaraigosa said.

"Already the city of Los Angeles has the largest, most aggressive municipal green building plan of any large city in America. Now it's time for green building to go private."

The purpose of the program is to "reduce the use of natural resources, create healthier living environments and minimize the negative impacts of development on local, regional and global ecosystems," according to the ordinance.

Specifically, the program addresses site location, water efficiency, energy use, building materials and "indoor quality," which includes air quality, natural lighting and thermal controls.

City Councilman Ed Reyes, chairman of the Planning and Land Use Management Committee, said the ordinance is about changing the way the city does business.

"We have to look at how the city can create cottage industries that stimulate green-building materials, green-building jobs and actually take advantage of the population base we have here, the demand that we have for this kind of product, and start influencing new neighborhoods to develop in a way in which we look at this comprehensively," Reyes said.

Builders who go beyond the city's minimum standards could have their permits and paperwork expedited under the program.

The mayor's office estimated that the program could reduce the city's carbon emissions by 80,000 tons by 2010. That is the equivalent of taking 15,000 cars off the road.