Wednesday, March 4, 2009

William & Mary Law School Symposium on Green Building

In January, 2009, I attended the “It’s Not Easy Building Green” Symposium sponsored by the William and Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review. A panel of speakers from across the country discussed issues relating to Green Building Standards and Sustainable Development Legislation.

Speakers included Prof. Patricia Salkin, Albany Law School, and Prof. John Nolan, Pace Law School, who together discussed how to accomplish reductions in green house gas emissions through local government controls (comprehensive plans, zoning and subdivision regulations, environmental ordinances, etc.). Prof. Salkin urged local governments to conduct "green audits" and to incorporate green zoning into local comprehensive plans.

Prof. Timothy Beatley, University of Virginia School of Architecture, spoke on the topic of "biophilic" urban design, which incorporates nature into traditional infrastructures in projects. Some examples include the use of bike and walking trails instead of concrete sidewalks, and replacing traditional stormwater systems with streams and gardens.

Other speakers included Shari Shapiro, Stephen Del Percio, and Chris Cheatham, all green building law attorneys and LEED Accredited Professionals.

For a full summary of the Symposium and for links to each speaker, go to http://elpr.org/symposium/.
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WELCOME!

Being a land use attorney brings a unique perspective to the many interests at play in the making of land use decisions. In the course of any application, you encounter public policy and private property issues that require both advocacy and compromise in hopefully attaining the goals of your client while serving the common good.

Recently, I have been immersed in issues involving "green building" and sustainable development. I have researched the "legislating" of "green building", familiarized myself with "LEED" and other "green building" certification models, and studied the science of environmental impacts on commercial, industrial and residential development to gain an overview of what might be accomplished by bringing concepts of sustainable development to the forefront in our planning processes.

My goal with this blog is to create a dialogue between towns, villages, cities, their planning boards and ZBA's, counties, developers, engineers, designers, surveyors, attorneys, IDA's, empire zones, building associations, and the like, in order to set a course in which "green building" and sustainable development become primary in the decisionmaking on all land use matters. This is a "from the ground up" endeavor. Let's make things happen!

Jay R. Myrow