The city of Aspen is embracing a building-code revision that will set ambitious green building standards and require either a photovoltaic solar panel system or payment into a renewable energy fund to offset exterior features such as snowmelt systems and heated pools.
The city’s building department received unanimous support to continue drafting the new code at Aspen City Council’s Tuesday work session. The code, which aims to meet the “2030 Challenge” to reduce energy consumption by 50 percent in the next 22 years, takes many of its cues from similar programs, such as the Renewable Energy Mitigation Program (REMP) in place in Aspen for residential construction for years.
The commercial REMP, as some refer to the new code, would require builders to use materials that meet or exceed efficiency standards. The key, Aspen’s chief building official, Stephen Kanipe, said, is to build efficient building shells that retain as much heat as possible and to outfit those buildings with the most efficient boilers, windows and light fixtures.
Any work on a commercial building that requires a building permit will be affected in some way by the new green-conscious commercial code, Kanipe said.
In what Kanipe said he hopes will one day lead to solar panels on the roof of every commercial building in downtown Aspen, commercial property owners will be offered incentives to install the photovoltaic devices when they also install energy-consuming outdoor features such as heated snowmelt sidewalks and heated pools.
Like the residential REMP, owners will have the choice of installing on-site renewable energy to offset exterior energy consumption, or pay into the REMP fund that contributes to renewable energy projects elsewhere.
But in a program that Kanipe describes as “all carrot and no stick,” owners will be given an incentive to install solar panels: The city will triple the credit for energy generated by the solar panels rather than through payments into the REMP.
The only major change City Council requested of Kanipe’s plan was the elimination of a requirement that buildings larger than 25,000 square feet submit to an energy audit every five years, and that the results of that audit be used to apply credit or debit to a particular building’s energy target. If a building uses less than its energy target, it will be able to bank the credits. If it uses more, the owner will be required to pay into the REMP or a similar program.
Mayor Mick Ireland described the proposal as a potential enforcement nightmare.
Kanipe said the city can find no examples of other municipalities that have implemented a program that requires owners to pay if they do not meet efficiency targets. Kanipe said Wednesday he still hopes to require owners to submit data on building energy consumption as a way to know more about the effectiveness of green-building techniques.
Kanipe noted that green building and renewable energy components are the future of the construction industry. “We’re just a few years ahead of the curve,” he said.
According to Kanipe, contractors’ associations argue that green-building measures, such as those proposed by Aspen, would increase costs by 2 to 5 percent. Kanipe disputes the point, saying that the long-term savings and desirability benefits from such building practices subtract from a developer’s bottom line.
Bottom-dollar value engineering “doesn’t make sense anymore,” Kanipe said. “You can’t afford to heat the building.”
Pitkin County Commissioners Rachel Richards and Dorothea Farris were at Tuesday’s meeting to offer support for the new building codes, and to request collaboration with the county’s building department, which employs the same residential development codes as the city. Although there is relatively little commercial property in unincorporated Pitkin County, the county commissioners said it is important to keep everyone on the same page.
The building department expects to have the final draft of the new commercial building code ready in about two months.
curtis@aspendailynews.com
