City Council Meeting

Melissa Shinaberryclerkby voicecouncilmember Bates I councilmember Peterson I councilmember Hardy Chandler I councilmember Amos I passed unanimously. So we will go to the public hearings. Our first one is a public hearing and council action on the adoption of the green building policy. I'm going to recognize Stephanie Kupka, our sustainability program manager for the staff presentation.

Stephanie KupkastaffGood evening, Mayor and City Council members. Tonight we're here to hold the public hearing for the Green Building Policy which is being considered for adoption. During my presentation, I'll first provide background information on the development of the Green Building Policy. I'll provide an overview of the research and community engagement that was conducted. I'll then provide details on the green building policy standards for both the public and private sectors. And then we'll discuss the administrative and implementation procedures for the green building policy. And then finally, I'll provide a recommendation to council pertaining to the adoption of the policy. I'll first start with background.

So why does a green building policy matter now? So when a building is constructed, that locks in 30 to 50 years of operating costs, which includes utilities, maintenance, and repairs. And right now, the city is facing multiple challenges regarding buildings, one of which is rapidly rising utility costs. For example, electricity rates are projected to increase more than by double in the next 20 years. And this year alone, we're anticipating to have a 32% increase in electricity rates. So this is a challenge for ongoing costs associated with utilities. We're also experiencing high development pressure, which is putting a strain on our natural resources. And we're also seeing increasing climate risks associated with extreme weather events, flooding, and extreme heat days.

So the green building policy is about responding proactively to these challenges by improving resilience, reducing long-term costs, and helping the city achieve our goals. The development of the green building policy has been in progress for years. So in 2020, the city council directed staff to develop the green building policy, and staff did so in accordance with the city's plans, policies, and state and federal guidelines. staff has spent multiple years researching best practices working with consultants george mason university engaging stakeholders and aligning this policy with the virginia high performance building act and regional standards so the scope of the green building policy includes both public

It gets us higher quality development, reduces development impacts on our tree canopy, water resources, and habitat through smarter design and building performance. It reduces demand on public infrastructure and utilities, lowering the long-term strain on our infrastructure. It improves building quality, comfort, and resilience, and also aligns with the city adopted environmental and economic goals. And then last but not least, it also helps promote access to the commercial PACE program that's available to commercial properties so they can get long-term financing and then also help pay for those green building enhancements. So as mentioned earlier, the green building policy will help the city achieve its goals.

From stakeholder committee formation in 2023 to conducting research, holding council work sessions, public meetings, obtaining advisory committee input, and developing multiple draft iterations and approving that based on feedback from the community, this policy reflects an extensive review, refinement, and stakeholder engagement. I'll now provide an overview of some of our research and community engagement. So this policy is grounded in best practices. Staff worked with a consultant to evaluate peer jurisdictions, Virginia building codes, the Virginia High Performance Building Act, and reviewed nationally recognized green building rating systems. We also had the privilege of being part of the U.S. Green Building Council's Green Building Policy Accelerator cohort,

So we did, after discussions with the council, we did decide to not include an incentive as part of this iteration of the green building policy so we could further study that to ensure that whatever incentive we had had the best impact and also address those fiscal and equity concerns. For technical definitions, we heard from stakeholders they wanted more definitions, and so there was less technical jargon and made it more easy to read, which we did. We also streamlined the certification process to simplify that to reduce the administrative burden and to make it easier for private industry to follow. for the next few slides I'll provide an overview of the public sector green buildings standards for applicability for the public sector it is existing

And then they will also be required to obtain the key sustainability and resilience credits shown here. For administration procedures, the development of the staff will develop an annual green building policy report which will provide an update on how the green building policy implementation is going. And then at a minimum of every five years, the policy will be reviewed and updated. And then also with each of these reports, key performance indicators will be measured, tracked and reported to show how we're making progress towards reaching our goals this slide shows the implementation procedure for the green building policy so tonight the the policy is being considered for adoption if it is adopted the public green building standards will become effective

immediately in September or sometime this fall we anticipate to hire an our brand-new energy programs manager. This position will be responsible for implementing and managing the green building policy. In fiscal year 27, staff will be working on tasks for the pre-launch planning, preparation, and coordination for the private sector standards. So this does require a significant amount of coordination between departments, finalizing standard operating procedures, building the website and forms, work with developers to train them. So this does take a significant amount of effort. So once that is ready to be launched, we anticipate the launch will be launched and enacted in July 2027. And ongoing, as mentioned on the previous slide,

each year we'll provide a progress report to council regarding the green building policy. And then for incentives, I mentioned earlier that incentives are not included in this iteration. However, we have scheduled to do further analysis and research on incentives to see which ones would have the biggest impact while also addressing fiscal and equity concerns. And we're scheduled to conduct that in fiscal year 31. And then in fiscal year 32, that would be the five-year mark to update and present the revised green building policy to council. and if council directs it, that policy would include those incentive measures. So in conclusion, the green building policy is a practical tool that advances city goals,

improves building performance, reduces long-term costs and environmental impacts, and aligns the city with regional best practices. Staff recommends that council pass a resolution to adopt the green building policy. that concludes my presentation so thank you

Ben Rhodespublic commentHello, Mayor and Council. My name is Ben Rhodes. I live at 3704 University Drive. I'm a member of the Environmental Sustainability Committee and have gotten to hear over my year with the committee, you know, the progress that's been made on the green building policy as it's been developed. incredibly heartening to see how much it's been improved over that year and I really look forward to being able to have sort of consistent environmental features particularly in public buildings right away as you know this gets rolled out and then you know seeing as our city develops and flourishes flourishes having consistency particularly in the habitat natural resources features tree canopy stormwater features in private buildings so that's

Faiza Alampublic commentGood evening, Mayor and Council. It's a pleasure to be here at this moment to kind of speak on with multiple behalf as an ESC member. Sorry, I didn't state my name. Faiza Alam from 10112 Radcliffe Manor Drive, Fairfax. And I'm a member of the ESC committee, science teacher at Catherine Johnson Middle School, where my students presented, because for me that's the most powerful piece here. We are educating our students and giving them the platform to speak, and they came to you multiple times to different bodies here in the city, and they did talk about green building policy and the heat island effect and all the stuff in their presentation for North Facts and Courthouse Plaza. Unfortunately, they couldn't come today because summer break was more important right now, and rightly so.

Stacey Hardy-ChandlerChandler I move to approve the resolution to adopt the green building policy

Paul Nabdistaffother examples things that are in development green building policy is no longer in development but we'll be using that as a resource move fairfax transportation plan is looking at a circulation study for old town so it'll certainly have significant impacts in that area but it's also looking at pedestrian safety improvements citywide and so we might take some recommendations from there include them in the smaller plans parks and recreation strategic master plan will be looking at the facilities we have and demands we might have for new facilities. So as I mentioned, there might be others. I also wanted to mention this is where I would include external policies and plans. So you had the presentation earlier tonight about the NVTA BRT Action Plan.