L.A. County Passes ‘Landmark' Green Building Ordinance

Praised by environmentalists as a "landmark green building plan," L.A. County's Board of Supervisors recently passed three ordinances addressing low-impact development, green building, and drought-tolerant landscaping. What motivated the Board of Supervisors to pass this package of environmental ordinances?

The package of ordinances was designed to save energy, clean our water supply, save our environment, and save money for the residents of Los Angeles County. It is the most far-reaching package of its kind in the state of California, and maybe even the country. We had the support of such disparate organizations as the Building Industry Association and Heal the Bay. As far as I know, this is the first time that has happened.

We're looking to use these ordinances to promote a future where construction is environmentally sound, where conservation and clean water rank at the top of the list, and where energy savings are a top priority. All of this, at the end of the day, will save people money.

This summer, the California Legislature and the governor also passed new state standards for building, water, and landscaping. What then was the need for the county to pass its ordinances, given the action by the state of California to raise their standards for LEED buildings?

What we've done is a bit more comprehensive than what the state has done. We're looking not only at the design of buildings and how to make buildings more energy efficient, but also at ground water recharge, and low impact development standards that are the most far reaching adopted by any local jurisdiction in the state. From beginning to end-from the gestation period of the construction project to its completion-every aspect of the project will be developed through a set of policies that are designed to improve the environment and minimize impact on the environment. We can go-and we are going-farther than the state on a comprehensive basis.

The L.A. County Green Building plan has the support, for example, of both Mark Gold of Heal the Bay and Holly Schroeder of the BIA-the latter is usually quite skeptical of such ordinances. What then, in your opinion, catalyzed such a broad based coalition of supporters for this plan?

In the end, everybody understood that this was where the county was moving. The county and the Board of Supervisors communicated clearly that we were going to move in this direction. Doing nothing, or doing something meaningless, was not an option. The Building Industry Association was convinced of that. Heal the Bay understood that we were going to advance the ball a considerable distance down the field. The ordinances might not include everything that I wanted, but this is a quantum leap over not only what we have done in the past but also what any jurisdiction has done.

Some didn't want to go as far as we did; some wanted to move further. It was a classic compromise, but in this case it is a compromise that is a net plus-a big plus-for the environment. Heal the Bay is a lot more excited about the results than the Building Industry Association, but I am convinced that the BIA wants to make this partnership work. It's an interesting coalition, and we will keep it together.

Mark Gold has said that the county's green building plan is "the most progressive environmental action ever taken by the county of L.A." The question arises: Does this action mark the beginning of a new era for planning and development in the unincorporated parts of the county?

It surely marks a change in the conditions we impose on new developments. There is a growing consensus in the county family, starting with the Board of Supervisors, that if there is going to be development, this is how it should take place. We can do it the right way or the wrong way. We can send water down the drain to the ocean, or we can capture it and recharge the ground water supply. Whether you're a pro-development conservative or a pro-environment, anti-development progressive, these ordinances make good sense for our economy and our quality of life.

We can require that the construction-related waste be recycled or reused. Construction debris makes up an estimated 20 percent or more of the waste that ends up in landfills. We're going to reduce the demand on landfills by recycling waste during construction. There is going to be a 40 percent water savings from the landscaping requirements that we incorporated in the ordinance, based on the use of smart irrigation systems, and 75 percent drought-tolerant landscaping in the front yards of new homes. This is a huge deal. It's going to make a big difference to our region.

One of the requirements of L.A. County's Green Building Plan is that by 2010 all buildings above 10,000 square feet must be LEED certified, and buildings greater than 25,000 square feet or 75 feet high must have a rating of LEED Silver. Could you share why you used LEED as the standard? Can the ordinance's goal be met in multiple ways or is LEED the only accepted benchmark?

We're using multiple measures as it relates to single-family homes. LEED is a broadly accepted standard that people are increasingly beginning to understand in both the environmental and building industry. We're using that as one standard, but we are using a combination of the county's own standards, the California Green Builder standard, and the Build it Green standards in addition to LEED, especially in the single-family home area.

Greening transportation is the focus of a number of newly adopted state climate change policies. Address, if you could, the relationship of traffic congestion, air quality, and climate change, and what public and private leaders can do in the Los Angeles basin to address such challenges. Will L.A. County's Measure R help?

Transportation, an effective mass transit system, and an efficient street and highway system is critical to our environment. Traffic congestion, gridlock, stop-and-go traffic, and idling all contribute to diminished air quality in our region, not to mention a diminished quality of life for people in our region.

The single most important thing that the public can do, in terms of transit, is to vote for Measure R on November 4, which will allow us to spend $40 billion over the next 30 years to expand the transportation infrastructure of our region. It includes the extension of the subway, the extension and construction of new light rail, and the improvement of highways throughout the county. It affects every community from Claremont to Santa Monica, from the Antelope Valley to Cerritos. It also includes the synchronizing of traffic signals. All of these things will improve the efficiency of transportation in our region and give people an alternative to getting into their cars. Measure R gives drivers an alternative in mass transit that will be more pleasant, more efficient, and more respectful of their quality of life. Measure R is a major watershed point for Los Angeles County.

In general, the time that people spend today getting from Point A to Point B has increased and adversely affected people's quality of life. Not just in terms of the economy and not just in the time it takes to deliver goods and services, but also in a social sense. The most acute social problems that we have in this region exist in some of the outlying areas of our county. If you look at places where parents travel four hours a day to and from work, they're never home, there's no supervision. It's not an accident that some of the communities on the outskirts of the county have much greater problems with teen drug abuse, spousal abuse, and the like. So a good transportation system is not just an environmental necessity, but a necessity for the quality of life in our society.

In this period of financial crisis and budget tightening, your website recently announced that the state awarded about $25 million in grants under Prop 50 to the L.A. County region for the development of storm water infrastructure, parks and open space. Are we investing wisely enough given the environmental challenges?

The county is undertaking a radical stormwater management project in the San Fernando Valley that hasn't yet gotten the attention it deserves. Some of these funds are being used for this purpose.

One of the projects is the Sun Valley Watershed Project. It's an alternative to the traditional way of managing storm water runoff in this county. In the past, we diverted runoff into storm drains, and sent it out to the ocean. Under this plan, we're not building storm drains, which were actually more expensive; instead, we capture the storm water, filter the water, and then recharge the San Fernando ground water supply with that very storm water. It has the effect of greening the Valley and increasing our water supply. The plan also solves the flooding problem which was the principal motivation in the first place.

For the Tujunga Wash project, which we also undertook in the San Fernando Valley, we took over a mile of the channel and diverted the water into a dirt riverbed that we created on the side that channel. When it rains, the water will go down this riverbed and recharge the ground water supply.

Under the old system, water would have gone down the storm drain directly to the ocean. Instead, we will recharge our ground water supply upstream. It also has a positive impact on flood control.

Those are the kinds of things we are doing when we pass a bond issue for water quality. We're leveraging those dollars to not only serving our public works needs, but improving the environment and the appearance of a community. It enhances the community's self-esteem. It is a lot better to have a natural riverbed rather than a concrete channel behind your property line. It's a win-win for our communities and our environment.

In Sun Valley, we have solved a chronic flooding problem, recharged the San Fernando Valley's groundwater and greened Sun Valley Park. This is an intelligent way to go about our water management business. It's less expensive than the old way of building massive concrete channels, and less disruptive to communities in the construction zones. This is the template for how we can handle these challenges in the future. Los Angeles County is at the forefront of this right now.