May 7, 2008—Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa recently signed a law that requires all new large building projects in the city to meet green building standards. The City claims the ordinance would reduce its carbon emissions by more than 80,000 tons by 2012, the equivalent of taking 15,000 cars off the road.
Touted as the most aggressive green building plan of any big city in the US, the new law requires any new building with more than 50,000 square feet of floor space or consisting of more than 50 units to meet the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building standard of the US Green Building Council.
In exchange, the city will work with builders to speed up approvals and to remove obstacles in the municipal code for elements of sustainable building design, such as green rooftops, cisterns, and permeable pavement. Builders who go the extra step to pursue LEED Silver certification will benefit from expedited processing of their building applications.
In addition to direct incentives, the mayor’s initiative will require the city to train case managers as LEED-accredited professionals and will create one-stop checklists of all available city incentives to guide developers through the green building process.
