San Jose adopts mandatory green building standards

Only two months after the city of San Francisco passed a Green Building Ordinance, San Jose follows suit. It appears from the article that San Jose's standards apply to new construction where as San Francisco's also encompass renovations.  -JW

 

Tuesday, October 7, 2008 - 4:01 PM PDT

San Jose adopts mandatory green building standards

Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal

A year after launching a Green Vision for San Jose, the City Council Tuesday adopted mandatory green building standards for all new construction.

The standards, intended to reduce water and energy usage, will apply to all housing developments with 10 or more units. On the commercial side, buildings under 25,000 square feet will be required to meet basic standards outlined by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, known as LEED. Buildings larger than 25,000 square feet must meet the LEED standards set forth in the silver designation. LEED has four rating levels: basic, silver, gold and the highest, platinum.

The vote Tuesday was unanimous with Council members Forrest Williams and Nora Campos absent.

In October 2007, Mayor Chuck Reed introduced his Green Vision for the city that called for creating 25,000 clean tech jobs, building or retrofitting 50 million square feet of green buildings, installing 100,000 solar roofs, reducing electricity usage by half, recycling 100 percent of the city’s water and waste, and obtaining all its energy from renewable sources.