 CITY OF SAN JOSE MOVES FORWARD ON GREEN BUILDING INITIATIVES
As you may have heard, on October 5, 2007, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed set out ten goals for environmental protection and standards, which were adopted by the San Jose City Council on October 30. In an effort to meet one of those goals, San Jose is in the process of drafting a new policy for required environmental standards for new construction. Goals for existing buildings have not yet been proposed.
Under the proposed new policy, which the City plans to implement effective January 1, 2009, new planning submittals for commercial buildings under 25,000 square feet will have to satisfy the LEED NC Checklist and new planning submittals for commercial buildings over 25,000 square feet will have to meet the standards for LEED Silver Certification. This draft policy is currently open for public comment.
On April 17, Jennifer Seguin, Mike Foster’s successor as Green Building Coordinator, and Michelle Stahlhut, San Jose Green Building Planner, attended the BOMA Executive and Committee Chair meeting to go over the proposed new standards and solicit input from the commercial real estate industry through BOMA. We provided some helpful suggestions and voiced a number of concerns about the new standards which we hope will be considered seriously by the City. The City is also seeking suggestions for incentives for developers and contractors that would encourage certification beyond the required levels and for existing construction.
If you would like to offer any suggestions or input on these standards, please contact Jennifer at (408) 975-2543 or jennifer.seguin@sanjoseca.gov. Since these standards are going to affect all new construction starting next year and will probably be the basis for the adoption and implementation of standards for changes to existing buildings a year or two later, it is important for all our members who have suggestions or concerns to contact Jennifer and voice those concerns now so that your comments can be included in the discussion before the City actually adopts and implements its new policies in this area.
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
This is a very busy time in our legislature and your BOMA California representatives are busy monitoring, supporting and opposing various pieces of legislation that affect commercial real estate. There are over a hundred pieces of legislation currently under scrutiny for our industry. If you would like a copy of the entire list of items, please send me an e-mail and I would be happy to forward the list to you.
Some items of particular interest right now that we are monitoring or supporting are SB1608 which is aimed at creating a procedure to allow building owners and tenants to fix construction related accessibility violations in buildings which have utilized a state certified access specialist, AB 1763, which requires usage, cost and contact information to be included on utility bills, and AB 2025, which increases the value of personal property abandoned in commercial spaces by a tenant that can be disposed of by the Landlord without the need to hold a public sale.
Some items that we are monitoring or opposing include AB 1546 which would require limited liability companies to estimate and pay their revenue tax in advance and imposes additional penalties for underpayment, AB1985 which imposes liability on sidewalk owners for injuries occurring on their sidewalks, and AB 2916 which requires all buildings owned or leased by the state, including any buildings in which the state is only a tenant in part of the building, to meet the LEED Certification standards.
UPCOMING EVENTS
On June 10 and 11, BOMA Silicon Valley representatives, along with representatives from the other BOMA locals in California, will participate in the California Commercial Real Estate Summit in Sacramento along with other groups that advocate for the interests of commercial property owners and those who service commercial property. The more people that attend the Conference, the stronger we look as an important group in the State and the more legislators we can visit. If you can come along, we would love to have you. If enough people sign up, we can form groups to reach more legislators.
Sarahann Shapiro,
Chairman
BOMA SV Government Affairs Committee
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