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This forum is a sounding board for a range of issues facing eastern Boulder County. I will prompt discussions with my posts and elected officials can tap into the concerns of citizens here, and explain their rationale on decisions. Follow along with the latest discussion by checking the list of recent comments on the right. You can comment with your name, a nickname or anonymously if you wish. You can become a contributor as well. Thank you for your comments!
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Sunday, May 06, 2007

An Incentives-Based Approach to County Green Building

In today's Camera, architect Jerry Van Sickle addresses the looming Boulder County green building mandates with a guest column that suggests a reasonable alternatives to those on the table. He says in part:
An easy way to invite these constant improvements will be for local appeal boards to keep adding effective solutions to our codes and allow owners to assign their own points based on their own preferences. Products that repay their costs in the shortest time will earn the most points. Owners of new and existing buildings will do the most good for mankind by saving the most money — without any need for mandates.
and he continues:

Most valuable of all, Boulder County will reverse a dangerous habit of imposing and accepting mandates. Our democracy will then strengthen its ability to resist more tyrannical majorities and leaders during times of crisis or widespread fears.

Read the rest here. The next Commissioners meeting on this is May 16.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is a very good editorial piece. I'm also skeptical of the role of vendors in shaping LEED certification and other product-specific mandates.

The nuance of the discussion that is not evident from the excerpts posted on Dan's blog is that Van Sickle is generally against prescriptive codes, but not regulation. His suggestion is that the point system be scrapped or modified to allow for any variation on approved technologies or innovation that promotes the goal of conservation and efficiency. This is not a ratification of the property rights argument we've been over before.