Bever, Foley call for greening

After a false start last year, the idea of environmentally friendly building may be gaining traction in Costa Mesa.

Councilman Eric Bever and Councilwoman Katrina Foley have each suggested the city adopt some sort of program — he called it “efficiency incentive,” she called it “green building” — to encourage people to conserve resources, use alternative energies and otherwise make buildings earth-friendly.

Although Bever in September 2006 voted against creating a new committee to explore sustainable development, he doesn’t think his new suggestion represents an about-face. The 2006 plan aimed to set requirements on new development, he said last week, and that’s an approach he doesn’t support.

“Ninety-five percent of our buildings are already built and most of them are not built to efficient standards, so I think there is a lot more gain to be made in that area,” he said. “I’m into using incentives. I’m not into mandating.”

Bever is still gathering information, so it’s not clear exactly what his plan will look like. But it could include waiving city permit fees for people who make their homes more efficient and working with utility companies to encourage water-saving irrigation, solar panels and the like.

Foley’s initial suggestions include speeding up the building permit process and waiving fees to get residential and commercial developments to use solar power or have buildings certified as “green.”

She also proposed having the city set an example by shifting its fleet to alternative-fuel vehicles, requiring new city facilities to meet green building standards, and turning unused areas on streets into green spaces.

Along with Councilwoman Linda Dixon, Foley proposed the committee in 2006, and she disputed Bever’s contention that it was about mandates.

Foley and Bever have often been at odds, but she said she hopes they can work together on an environmental building incentive plan.

One area where they already disagree is new construction. Bever’s plan won’t include provisions for new buildings because, he said, “I think the housing market already demands those type of approaches. From what I’ve seen, most developers are using sustainable technology and high-efficiency developments in their homes.”

Dixon said she’s pleased to see her colleagues taking the idea seriously, after they dismissed it last year, but she’s not sure what spurred the change of heart.

“I don’t know, I guess sometimes people need to get more familiar with it and then bring it up as their idea,” she said.

But no matter who suggested it, Dixon said, the city should encourage water efficiency, roof gardens and other environmentally safe approaches as major new developments go in and old ones get redone.

At least one member of the city’s business community will welcome the new incentives, since he pioneered similar ideas more than a decade ago.

Shaheen Sadeghi built the Lab on Bristol Street from recycled military buildings 14 years ago, and nine years later he added the Camp, which has grass roofs and a parking lot water filtration system.

Now he’s planning a residential component that will be built from sustainable and recycled materials and will offer residents bicycles and electric cars to get around.

When he was building the Camp and the Lab, he said, people saw them as novelties.

Now, with a wider variety of green building materials available and the prices dropping, Sadeghi said, “This is no longer sort of a fad or a trend. It makes sense.”