Fairfax County planners are exploring how to persuade developers to adopt green building practices.

The county now has no cohesive way to push for incorporation of low-impact, energy-efficient building features in private construction.

But officials plan to begin serious discussions next month and the issue will move to the forefront as part of the board’s election-year push to turn Fairfax into becoming a more environmentally friendly county.

At question is how to prompt developers to go green when market forces fall short.

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A solution may involve offering some sort of “density bonus” by which more construction would be exchanged for green practices, according to an Aug. 22 draft report from Fairfax County staff.

“We need to understand exactly what we’re getting into,” said Fairfax County Supervisor Penelope Gross, who represents the Mason District. “I’d like to see us get to a point where we can say our private residential developments are green.”

The market is already increasingly adopting green building techniques, said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the District-based Coalition for Smarter Growth.

“There’s even a little bit of competition growing between developers to use green building as a marketing tool,” he said.

For the plan to work in Fairfax, Schwartz said, officials should concentrate any density incentives around rails stops to keep the resulting new commuters off area roads.

Fairfax also should explore other ways to motivate developers, such as quicker review for projects that meet green criteria, they said.

Fairfax County staff will produce a new report following the workshop on Sept. 6, and there is a Planning Commission public hearing set for early November, according to Jim Hart, an at-large planning commissioner.

He said the Board of Supervisors, which will make any final policy decisions, could consider the measures by the end of the year.

“Energy conservation, sustainable building protection of water quality, there are many objectives,” Hart said. “I think we recognize that we can do much more now than has been done in the past.”

wflook@dcexaminer.com