East Lansing mulls tying economic development funds to green building practices

EAST LANSING — City Council members are poised to approve a new proposal that would tie city-approved economic development funds to green building practices. If approved, East Lansing would be the first city in the state to make such a move.

Under the proposal, expected to be voted on by the council later this month, the city will link economic incentives offered through programs like the Tax Increment Financing or Brownfield redevelopment programs to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. Triplett says any program receiving 15 percent or more its funding from such public financing deals would be required to build to LEED’s silver certification level.

LEED certification comes in four categories: certified, silver, gold and platinum. The certification criteria is rated based on construction choices including use of recycled materials and water- and energy-use reduction. Each rating category — sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, material and resources, indoor environmental quality, innovation in design and regional priority — is assigned a point value, with a total possible value of 100 points.

To achieve a certified level, a project has to accrue 40-49 points; for the silver level, 50-59 points; gold level, 60-79 points; and platinum, 80 or more points. The more points a project accrues, the more efficient and environmentally sound the project is.

“We’re trying to strike a balance between the sustainability that we are trying to accomplish and the cost premium that is associated,” said council member Nathan Triplett, an ardent supporter of the proposal, which was initiated by East Lansing’s Commission on the Environment. The cost of implementing a silver-level certification would be between 2 and 4 percent of the total budget. “Increasingly, LEED certification at the certified level is sort of becoming the industry standard. … So if you really want to have an impact above what is happening on the status quo, you have to go to the next level.”

“We want to set a basic floor,” Triplett said of the decision of use silver as the base measure, adding that projects would be encouraged to achieve higher LEED levels.

While the proposed legislation is a step toward modifying the standards in the city for green building, Triplett said the chances of expanding further are clouded by state law.

“Local units of government could not adopt LEED as a mandatory part of its code. We are prohibited by the state,” said Triplett, who works as a legislative aide in the office of State Rep. Kate Ebli, a Monroe Democrat.

The state passed a Uniform Building Code in the 1990s to align more than 600 local building codes, said Lee Schwartz, vice president for government relations at the Michigan Association of Home Builders (MAHB). He said the mishmash of codes made development difficult.

To address the issue of the uniform code, Triplett, with the help of his boss, has helped marshal a bill into the House to amend the Uniform Building Code to include green standards.

MAHB opposes legislation sponsored by Ebli, which is awaiting a hearing in a House Regulatory Reform Committee.

But the East Lansing City Council is not waiting for the state legislation to pass before implementing its local policy. Triplett and other city officials say they expect the ordinance to pass before the end of the month.

Tim Schmitt, a community development analyst for the city whose job it is to assist businesses seeking tax breaks from the city, said the community development department is excited about the new proposal.

“We are going to be behind it whole hog,” Schmitt said. “In the short term it is a benefit to everyone.”