San Antonio goes green with all future construction.

sirkingwilliam · #1 Posted **Apr 21, 2007, 12:39 AM**

S.A. goes green

Web Posted: 04/20/2007 02:22 AM CDT

Bridget Smith
KENS 5 Eyewitness News

Within the next 10 days, San Antonio will be “going green.”

“This is about being transformational leaders and not just being folks who are maintaining what we have,” City Councilman Roland Gutierrez said.

On Thursday, the City Council said, “Yes,” to making the city environmentally conscious with the effort beginning in downtown.

“This is certainly part of our emphasis that we've been pushing on clean energy, clean air,” Gutierrez said. “The idea is that when we're building new buildings, we're looking at solar energy issues, we're looking at water harvesting issues.”

Once in effect, the ordinance calls for any new municipal or office building constructed in the downtown area to be environmentally friendly.

“It's going to require us to maybe spend a little more money and materials on the front end, but a heck of a lot on the energy piece on the back end,” Gutierrez said.

Last week, the city added 19 hybrid vehicles to their fleet of 60 hybrids.

“We're looking at efficiency from a fuel standpoint to an air quality standpoint,” said Rose Ryan, with the city’s Environmental Services department.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/met....27e18c82.html

arbeiter · #2 Posted **Apr 21, 2007, 1:37 AM**

What a ridiculously misleading thread title.

sirkingwilliam · #3 Posted **Apr 21, 2007, 2:56 AM**

Quote:

beginning in downtown.

Eventually this will be a rule for all future city construction. Nothing misleading.

jtk1519 · #4 Posted **Apr 21, 2007, 3:28 AM**

I like this move and hope other cities follow suit.

Tex1899 · #5 Posted **Apr 21, 2007, 1:48 PM**

This is an outstanding move...one that I hope other cities will consider and adopt.

One concern I have is that it appears some privately-owned buildings will be required to abide by this rule. While I think adhering to it would be smart from the developer's standpoint, I don't think the city should mandate it. However, this is one of the few examples of government regulation that I like.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sirkingwilliam

City Councilman Roland Gutierrez

“It's going to require us to maybe spend a little more money and materials on the front end, but a heck of a lot on the energy piece on the back end,” Gutierrez said.

Is it just me or did this guy leave out a key piece of information... as in energy savings...

21bl0wed · #6 Posted **Apr 21, 2007, 6:08 PM**

Sweet just more red tape that has to be cleared for any future proposals.

sirkingwilliam · #7 Posted **Apr 21, 2007, 6:32 PM**

I guess that's a cynics way of looking at it.

Double L · #8 Posted **Apr 21, 2007, 11:02 PM**

From a human standpoint, you can't just tell every developer in the city to "go green" Saytown, I would rather starting programs to work with them and encourage them to go green at their own pace.

Tex1899 · #9 Posted **Apr 22, 2007, 5:04 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Double L

From a human standpoint, you can't just tell every developer in the city to "go green" Saytown, I would rather starting programs to work with them and encourage them to go green at their own pace.

What I don't understand is why more developers aren't choosing this path. My guess is that in more than half of all cases, developing green projects will be financially feasible. The only instances in which I don't think it would make sense to a developer is if they intend to build the project and then flip it; your savings from green development come in the operations side and in this case the developer wouldn't care - they're going to be operating it for a short period of time.

There's a short blurb about a new Trammell Crow project in west Houston. Initially the project was going to be a typical suburban office building and at the last minute TC changed their mind and decided to go green with the project. Check out why...interesting thought process:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...f/4736084.html

alexjon · #10 Posted **Apr 22, 2007, 8:18 PM**

It works in portland and many other cities; don't see why it won't work in SA. Especially since there are a lot of extra kick-backs you can get for building green

BG918 · #11 Posted **Apr 22, 2007, 8:55 PM**

There's a group at OU trying to get the university to require all new buildings be at least LEED-certified. I think it would be great if those kind of initiatives spread to cities, or at least parts of cities. Doesn't Austin have some sort of LEED requirement?