County Presentation
EXPLORING AN ADAPTIVE BUILDING ORDINANCE
Hosted by the San Geronimo Valley Planning Group
Monday, April 11 at 8 pm
San Geronimo Valley Community Center, West Room

NOTE: Marin County is exploring an adaptive building ordinance. Supervisor Kinsey is taking a lead on this and has asked the Planning Group to host a presentation for interested members of the community. Steve will be present to introduce the idea and its purpose. Camila Flowerman, an intern from the Valley, will present the background and need. Bill Kelley, Chief Building Official, will provide detailed information about the opportunity in the code that allows the County to undertake an ordinance and how it could work in Marin. The county would like to receive input from Valley residents as they would potentially make the most use of the proposed ordinance, to see whether people think it would be useful, and to get their thoughts about the areas of current code that present the most difficulty in either bringing unpermitted structures into compliance, or those which represent the greatest barriers to green building. Steering Committee member Dan McKenna will facilitate comments, questions, concerns and support which will be recorded and presented to the county and published in the next Newsletter. The County is to be complimented for seeking input at the outset. See a few proposed comments and questions at the end of the following article.


EXPLORING AN ADAPTIVE BUILDING ORDINANCE
Background and Need By Camila Flowerman

Historically, strict permitting requirements and associated costs have caused many West Marin property owners to forego the process of obtaining a permit and instead continue with their proposed building plans without a permit, resulting in unregulated housing construction and unknown housing conditions. Additionally, many Marin County property owners have shown interest in incorporating innovative green building methods and technologies in their building plans. Unfortunately, the opportunity for implementation of these greener technologies is limited at best due to areas of conflict with less innovative building and safety codes.

In 2010, a bill with the objective of increased flexibility in application of building codes through “experimental” green building permits was considered at the State level after being introduced by Assemblyman Jared Huffman, but was eventually dropped because of opposition it received due to the proposed experimental permit program’s lack of limits on type or number of buildings able to benefit from the bill.

A local ordinance allowing greater flexibility in application of codes would help to address the problem of unpermitted building in rural, low-density areas such as West Marin, and also allow for the potential and voluntary implementation of greener building practices and technologies for interested property owners. The provisions of such an ordinance could greatly improve the construction, enlargement, conversion, alteration, repair, use, maintenance, and occupancy of some of West Marin’s historically problematic rural dwellings and appurtenant structures. No new permit process would need to be established. Applicants seeking to use greener alternative building technology would use existing permit provisions as provided in current Community Development Agency fee schedules. Applicants would have the burden of establishing the need and appropriateness of each proposed building alternative in application, and the chief building official would review and make a determination based on findings related to safety and performance.

Because the requirements for the application of such an ordinance in a local setting could be specific to support the needs of Marin’s communities, and a local implementation would be less far- reaching than an assembly bill, the ordinance would avoid problems associated with a perceived deviation from state building and safety codes, and would receive less opposition from business interests within the conventional building materials industry. This kind of ordinance would not only support the County’s objectives related to energy efficiency, water use, reduction of carbon emissions, and waste reduction, but also would provide greater housing opportunities for Marin’s rural owner builders as well as live/work housing conversion opportunities for Marin’s Brownfield and Grayfield properties.

A few Planning Group comments/questions: How would this impact current illegal second units in the Valley? Give examples of green building that has been thwarted by current building codes and how this would solve that problem. Provide information as to how this proposal will avoid the problems that stopped the Huffman bill. Is the Valley considered a “low density” community? How would this help the Brownfield properties since their reuse has been hindered by actual or suspected presence of pollution/contaminants? What are the Grayfield properties? What’s the possibility of revising existing fee structures to incentivize the process?