Urban Design
Green Building
To set aggressive green building standards by requiring the majority of construction projects in Pasadena to meet high U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED™ standards..
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On April 15, 2006, the Pasadena City Council approved a set of progressive green building regulations for public and private sector buildings. Buildings required to comply with these regulations include:
• municipal buildings of 5,000 square feet or more of new construction
• non-residential buildings with 25,000 square feet or more of new construction
• tenant improvements of 25,000 square feet or more
• mixed use and multi-family residential buildings four stories in height or more
These thresholds were chosen as they represent a majority of construction projects in Pasadena and coincide with thresholds for other mandatory City reviews.
As of May 16, 2008, the City Council approved the following amendments:
• new municipal buildings must achieve LEED Silver at a minimum
• municipal renovations of 15,000 square feet or more must achieve LEED Silver at a minimum
• commercial type buildings of over 50,000 square feet or more must meet the intent of LEED Silver at a minimum
• all projects subject to the ordinance must achieve LEED credit 3.1 Water Efficiency (exceed the baseline water projection by 20%)
Before approving these standards, the City retained the services of a green building expert; reviewed existing City regulations; examined other jurisdictions’ environmental programs; analyzed building activity; and formed and solicited advice from a green ribbon committee of development, industry, and community stakeholders.
Pasadena was one of the first cities in the nation to adopt LEED standards for private buildings. The green building program and implementation have been successful because of the administrative practices put into place for this new program, the incentives offered, and the outreach provided to the community. Projects subject to the ordinance are extensively reviewed - from preliminary to building plan review, specification review, LEED template review, and building inspection.
The Green Building Workshops, conducted from February 2006 to June 2006, were well attended and received by the community. Information about the workshops, including video stream access is available on the website. Additionally, at the Permit Center (where all plans are submitted and permit applications received) a green building display was created with oversized poster boards explaining the advantages of green building, building product samples, brochures and a continuous stream slideshow projection.
Success in ensuring maximum environmental soundness of buildings derives from inclusion of the entire design team early in the design process and for the team to understand green building design integration. Major projects in the City must submit applications for preliminary design review which affords project owners the ability to evaluate the City’s requirements (from traffic measures to CEQA documentation) before spending resources on design development. At this stage, we inform the project team of the LEED requirements by providing a free workshop with the LEED AP consultant and city staff. Although these major projects can take 2-5 years to go from the preliminary stage to final occupancy inspection, and while the ordinance is relatively new, we have nearly half a million square feet of green projects that have pulled building permits. The first project reviewed under the ordinance requirements, a 50,000 tenant improvement, received LEED Gold certification voluntarily from the USGBC.
By involving industry leaders, community representatives, and green building experts in the formation of the green building program, concerns were addressed prior to presentation to the City Council and there was no opposition to the ordinance. A primary concern of developers was for the program to not impede the entitlement and plan review process. Because of this, the building thresholds chosen coincide with thresholds for other mandatory City reviews (e.g., CUP) and they represented the prevalent construction projects in Pasadena.
Understanding that resources were needed to provide comprehensive LEED review of projects subject to the ordinance, the City approved $150,000 for LEED AP consultant services. In addition, $5,000 was provided for staff green building and LEED training. To educate the development community on the requirements and to provide green building information to residents, $100,000 was allocated for eight green building workshops held in the community, a green building tour, and a green building display. On-going administration is absorbed by the newly created Sustainability Section of the Building and Neighborhood Revitalization Section of the Planning and Development Department.
Project certification by the USGBC is not a project requirement, however financial incentives of $15,000 - $30,000 are offered by the City’s Water and Power Department, along with fixture rebates. The free LEED AP consultant services average $10,000 per project.
None. The ordinance was categorically exempt from CEQA - Section 15061 (b) (3).
The Mayor and City Council directed staff to create a green building program. Initial efforts began as early as 2003 but were postponed to January 2005 because of staffing constraints.
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