BAM NEWS
POLITICAL: MN Climate Control Committee Takes Some Twists and Turns
In the final stages of the development of the Residential, Commercial and Industrial Technical Working Group meetings, participants were seeking to rewrite the statewide building code recommendation that would allow cities to adopt green building programs more stringent than the state building code. While we are supportive of Green Building Programs, we do not believe they should be mandated.
Allowing a city to require a building practice more stringent that the state building code violates state law and undermines the public policy of the uniform building requirements. We ended up winning this round by defeating the proposal in committee but we are sure to face the issue of mandates for green building again.
Similar shenanigans were taking place at the Transportation and Land Use Technical Working Group. “Other parties” were able to add last minute language dramatically altering the TLU-1 proposal. The primary change was to increase housing density in the region controlled by the Met Council. The recommendations included doubling the number of households from 30% to 60% of developed areas and increase job targets from 50% to 75% in developed areas. The proposal would also reduce subsidies to areas that were not in the targeted area. While the new language was strongly objected to by BAM and staff from the Met Council, it remained in the proposal and is proceeding to the full committee.
The MN Climate Change Group will complete its work next week Thursday and final proposals will be available for on-line viewing at http://www.mnclimatechange.us/index.cfm