The City of Sonoma’s new mandatory green building program will go into affect on August 1, 2009. The program applies to new residential buildings and new residential accessory structures with a floor area of 500-square feet or more. It also applies to new nonresidential buildings and new nonresidential additions with a floor area of 5,000-square feet or more.
The program does not apply to existing buildings unless more than 75 percent of the existing walls are demolished or deconstructed.
According to Wayne Wirick, the city’s development services director/building official, any applications submitted to date have been in compliance with the program’s specifications. Commercial construction is Wirick’s department and he says the best existing example of a completed commercial property is the Freiburg Building, located at 10 Maple Street in Sonoma.
Begun as a high-quality office building project, the Freiburg Building turned “green” when the owners realized, close to the start of construction, that their plan could qualify for LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. Jeffrey Freiburg, one of the owners who managed the project, calls it a decision that’s good for the environment and the group of Sonoma residents who invested $5.9 million for the long haul.
The two-building complex, south of the post office on Broadway, earned a silver LEED® rating from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization committed to expanding sustainable building practices.
According to Joe Burroughs, the city’s plan examiner, an example of residential construction in compliance with green standards is a home at 80 Second Street East, whose owner, Bill Jasper is also acting as general contractor on the project.
Other noteable green building specialists in the Valley include Peter and Michelle Tovar of Green Living Sonoma and local contractor, John Curry.
The proposed Green Building program is intended to increase the efficiency and
conservation with which buildings use resources such as energy, water, and materials while reducing building impacts on human health and the environment during the building’s lifecycle, through better design, construction, operation, maintenance, and construction waste removal.
Building permit applicants that are subject to the new green building program will need to provide documentation prepared by a green building specialist to show that their project will include a sufficient number of green building measures to meet the minimum compliance threshold for their specific type of project.
In the case of a new residential building, the owner or applicant must hire a LEED® Accredited Professional, a Build It Green Certified GreenPoint Professional, GreenPoint Advisor or GreenPoint Rater, to review the proposed construction plans and submit an appropriate Build It Green GreenPoint Checklist with accompanying plan documentation showing that the necessary green measures are incorporated into the project plans. Prior to final inspection approval by the Building Department, the GreenPoint Rater must provide verification documentation attesting that all required green features have actually been incorporated into the work.
For new nonresidential building, the owner or applicant must hire a LEED®
Accredited Professional to review the proposed construction plans, submit a LEED® checklist showing the features that will be incorporated in the project, and verify that these features are incorporated into the plans. Prior to final inspection approval by the
Building Department, the LEED® Accredited Professional must provide verification documentation attesting that all required green features have actually been incorporated into the work.
It should be noted that compliance thresholds and rating systems used to evaluate and calculate green building measures vary depending on whether the building is heated or cooled and whether it is a residential or nonresidential use.
In a related matter, the California Building Standards Commission has revised the effective date of the new 2008 Building Energy Efficiency Standards from August 1,
2009 to January 1, 2010. The 2008 Building Energy Efficiency Standards provide new requirements for the installation of “cool” roofing materials, lighting, air-conditioning systems and better thermal transmission properties for windows.
The city will be producing specific checklists based on the appropriate green building rating system prior to the effective date of the program. Until then, generic checklists can be viewed for new residential and nonresidential (commercial) projects at the following Web sites:
Residential: builditgreen.org/greenpoint-rated/guidelines
Nonresidential: usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=222
Or, for more information contact the City of Sonoma Building Department at 707.938.3681 or visit the City’s Green Building Program Web page: sonomacity.org
