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Fairfax planners to weigh green building measures
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The policies span from maximizing tree preservation to promoting telework to ensuring that certain new developments meet independent standards for energy efficiency, among other measures.
Nearly all the measures are aimed at one of the country’s largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions. Traditional buildings, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, are responsible for 38 percent of the pollutant, which has been linked to global warming. Buildings also account for 39 percent of the nation’s energy consumption, as well as 68 percent of electricity and 12 percent of water use, according to the EPA.
If ultimately approved by the county Board of Supervisors, the proposal would put new regulations and guidelines into the comprehensive plan, a document that lays out the county’s land-use policy.
“I think it adds an additional factor onto the equation: Is this going to be an energy-efficient building? Is it going to objectively meet these other criteria?” Planning Commissioner Jim Hart said. “We’ve become increasingly aware that we need to focus on these issues.”
The Planning Commission, which serves for the most part as an advisory panel, will vote on the issue Thursday. Supervisors likely will take up the issue next month.
One of the largest initiatives would require the county to mandate zoning requests for apartments and nonresidential developments of four or more stories in Tysons Corner and other centers to meet U.S. Green Building Council requirements.
Hart said the proposal before the commission Thursday is far from the last step. The county still must figure out how to persuade developers to adopt many of the practices. Those details, he said, are in supervisors’ hands.
“The hard part is: What are the next steps?” he said.
wflook@dcexaminer.com
Comments from Examiner Readers
2:16 PM MST on Thu., Dec. 27, 2007 re: "Amicus Green Building makes being green easy"
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8:34 AM MST on Tue., Oct. 30, 2007
re: "Fairfax County planners mull how to foster green buildings"
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3:15 PM MST on Wed., Aug. 29, 2007
re: "Fairfax County planners mull how to foster green buildings"
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Would be Amicus Customer said:
Amicus is totally unprofessional and unreliable. For green building products, go to Capital Building supply. I have been trying to buy cotton insulation from Amicus for a while, but they are not open about their prices, and are difficult to reach due to their capricious operating hours (they are a shoddy mom-and-pop operation). They did not even remember to bring their price list to the Green Convention. After they bragged to me about their huge inventory of this product, I went down there, and lo and behold, they have been out of stock for several months. This is their core product, and they don't have it. I browsed their other products, and it is a lot of Chinese made junk and stuff with dubious environmental value (an inflateable rubber balloon to reduce the capacity of your toilet tank?). Plus, there is an annoying dog roaming their warehouse, which is a nusiance to people like me with allergies, and is a poor example of environmental responsibility.
160 agree | 126 disagree
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Man What said:
Regardless of the possible detrimental effects of illegal workers, a healthier environment is a healthier environment. You may as well complain about attempts to improve education, fight violent crime, or prevent government corruption. Not every effort can be spent on chasing people out of the country when there are so many other issues at hand.
152 agree | 159 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I can not believe our Fairfax County officials are taking their valuable time to be get involved in fostering green buildings while the illegals aliens in are community are driving up the cost of living for tax paying legal citizens of this county. It's time to get involve in the effort to remove ALL illegal aliens from the county, state and the country.
192 agree | 174 disagree
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