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Tuesday, 19 December 2006 16:42 |
By DAVID FORBES
City buildings may soon have to meet stricter environmental standards, if a measure sent by the Asheville City Council to the cityës new environmental advisory committee on Dec. 12 is approved.
The measure would require that all new city buildings or those being significantly renovated, would have to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards. LEED is as a national program to certify the energy efficiency of a building. In a 4-3 vote, council approved sending the measure to the committee for review before reconsidering it.
"We need to consider whether or not we will incorporate green building into what the city builds," Councilman Brownie Newman, who was one of the writers of the proposal, said. "We need to move toward doing something on this."
At
that point, Councilman Carl Mumpower said that prior to the meeting, he
had been willing to support the measure, but had changed his mind.
"Proper process
is to derive public input on such a major policy step, (rather than)
turning it over to a board that I believe will be stacked in favor of
socialistic policies," Mumpower said. "I believe in conserving energy,
but I donët think this is the proper process for getting there."
In reply,
Councilwoman Robin Cape, who, along with Newman, crafted the motion,
noted that "we spent four weeks interviewing people for this board and
had some amazing applicants. Not to point fingers, but if you donët
show up for the interviews, itës hard to say the board is stacked."
Furthermore, she
said, the proposal suggests LEED certification "because itës easy to
talk about ǃÚgreen building,ë but LEED makes you have to justify that."
Meanwhile, Mayor
Terry Bellamy said that she is generally in favor of energy-efficient
building standards, but felt that the LEED standards may be too strict
and that the matter needed more research.
Councilman Jan Davis, also citing process concerns, cast the other dissenting vote.
In other action, council:
ï Approved 6-1
modifying the conditional zoning of a senior housing development
located at 138 Springside Road. The new plans call for dropping a floor
off the affordable housing development, decreasing it from 80 units to
63, in order to meet standards set for grants from the state.
The dissenting
vote was cast by Mumpower, who opposed the initial project, asserting
that it represents an intrusion of denser development into the area.
ï Approved 6-1
new guidelines for the cityës Housing Trust Fund, which provides loans
and grants to developers who are building affordable housing. The new
rules raise limits and amounts of the loans.
Proponents of the changes assert that they are needed to deal with construction costs.
Mumpower cast the dissenting vote, asserting that the cityës policies with the fund constitute socialism.
ï Approved 4-3 allowing homestays, where residents can rent out single rooms in residential neighborhoods.
Proponents of
the measure, including Mumpower and Cape, said that it will help
citizens make ends meet and increase the diversity of the city.
Meanwhile,
Davis, Bellamy and Councilman Bryan Freeborn all opposed the measure,
citing concerns about the intrusion of commercial activity into
residential neighborhoods.
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