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Green Building Ordinance

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In December of 2015, Ordinance 02-15 "Green Building Requirements" updated the Land Development Regulation pertaining to development in the central business district (CBD) adding a requirement that new buildings 50,000 square feet or larger must attain a green building designation of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver or equivalent. To date, a few new developments in the downtown area have been subject to the regulation.

In 2019, the Green Implementation Advancement Board recommended to the City Commission to amend the green building ordinance to require development projects 5,000 square feet or larger citywide to be at least LEED Gold certified. City staff drafted this ordinance, with the addition of accepting green building certifications equivalent to the LEED standard, such as the standard by the Florida Green Building Coalition. City staff continues to work on the draft of this ordinance with input received during various public workshops and advisory board meetings. When a satisfactory draft of the ordinance is complete, it will be brought before the City Commission.

 

 

More Information 

  • A study conducted in 2014 by Home Innovation Research Labs assessed the cost and compared green building certifications for a home located in Dallas, Texas. This study found that it costs an additional $12,000 to certify the project through the current LEED program, which increased the entire cost of the project by approximately 3.9%. 

  • A 2014 study prepared for the City of Edmonton assessed the return on investment for LEED certification, and found that when studying three city buildings, the financial return on investment payback period ranged from 6 to 25 years, while the sustainable return on investment (includes benefits in addition to financial considerations) payback period ranged from 3 to 11 years. 

  • A list of buildings that are certified through the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED program can be found by going to: https://www.usgbc.org/projects?Search+Library=%22delray%20beach%22  

  • A list of buildings certified through the Florida Green Building Coalition can be found by going to https://www.floridagreenbuilding.org/?commercial and scrolling down to the interactive map. From there you can zoom and scroll to find certified projects in Delray Beach.