Green Building in the Great Recession

What this meant for San Francisco’s Green Building Ordinance was that it would have to wait. The commercial real estate market dried up with the banking industry. The city agencies that were charged with moving projects through entitlement slowed; and developers waited. Tenant improvements to existing commercial spaces still occurred, but the scale of the projects didn’t require LEED certification. Residential building also continued, but was only subject to GreenPoint Rating/Certification that had a 25 point obligation over four areas.
The final Ordinance lacked the incentive based agreements between city staff and the developers, as suggested by the Task Force Recommendations. No incentives were included in the final Ordinance. Laurence Kornfield [Deputy Director] at the Department of Building Inspection (DBI) said in a telephone interview, “You’ve got to tell them [developers] what to do because incentives don’t work. ” Further, Kornfield added, the 2006, ordinance that updated the permitting process guidelines also gave priority status for LEED Gold certified projects.
San Francisco architect, Robert Baum, explained how the expedited process worked for his firm. They met with what he called the “Green Team” where the proposed project design and construction were reviewed, and LEED Gold certification confirmed. Some member of the Team said that they qualified for priority processing and that was it. The project moved toward permitting faster, he said, but he could not recall how much time was shaved off the waiting process and he questioned how the queuing up of projects were handled at the city agencies.
In the course of my research, I conducted four interviews: a land use attorney, a commercial architect, a developer and the building inspector. They all confirmed that while the ordinance codified LEED Silver Certification, the industry strives for LEED Gold. LEED Gold establishes priority processing and the cost benefit to the owner is greater. The general consensus was that LEED certification is valued in the marketplace, not only because its good for the overall health of the built environment, but it adds status and a source of competition in the industry. The development climate has progressed since the 2006 LEED Gold incentive and developers are increasingly motivated by the market demand for green.