Early Adoption of California Green Building Code

Green Awareness Program

New Zoning Ordinances & Design Guidelines

Measure #4

This new program, still in the development stage aims at improving the City’s already great environmental record.  A collection of qualified individuals was put together to outline some strategies and goals dealing with environmental and development issues.  This “Climate Change Working Group” (CCWG) presented 7 measures, which the City adopted as a preliminary implementation plan on July 10, 2008.
The work continues on these measures until they are ready to be adopted as Municipal Code Ordinances.  Of these seven measures, #4 and part of #5 come under the purview of the Planning and Building Division.  The findings for these and their implementation plans are described below

• Early Adoption of California Green Building Code
• Green Awareness Program
• New Zoning Ordinances & Design Guidelines

There is not a straight-line relationship between green program certification and Title 24 part 6 performance and carbon reductions.  For this reason our approach will directly focus on carbon emission reductions.  This is in keeping with our existing policies and commitments.  Reductions in energy use by buildings are among the easiest carbon-reducing actions to quantify and lessen the community’s “carbon footprint”.  As proposed, the Chula Vista Green Building Standard will complement green building measures at the state and national level, and place a high priority on reducing the carbon emissions of buildings in Chula Vista.  This innovative program provides an equitable solution for new and retrofit, as well as residential, industrial and commercial buildings. Furthermore, the proposed program meets, and in the case of commercial projects exceeds, the initial reduction targets outlined by Architecture 2030.  That program is a nationally recognized movement in the building/architectural community to make new buildings “carbon neutral” by 2030.  The program will require both public and private development to participate and will be comprehensive in the size and types of structures covered. When developing Chula Vista’s Green Building Standard, consideration was given to National and State programs as well as industry best practices.  Care was taken to avoid measures that might be redundant.

In preparation for the Chula Vista Green Building Standards (CVGBS) our staff has researched the many upcoming changes that may effect our future direction.  Factors to be considered for our program are:

1. Energy efficiency and green building ordinances adopted by other jurisdictions.
2. Third party green building programs such as LEED, Build it Green, Green Globes, California Green Builder and others.
3. Proposed and future standards; The 2008 California Energy Code, the 2010 California Green Building Standards and the National Green Building Standard.
4. The Chula Vista Research Project
5. Energy efficient community development initiatives and land use planning. 

The City of Chula Vista Planning and Building Department, Building Division, is responsible for confirming that all commercial, industrial and residential construction projects meet the minimum requirements of the State and locally mandated construction codes.  They also provide plan check and associated inspections. The Planning Division is responsible for promulgating policy and regulations and administering them for land use, site design and zoning.  Building Codes, land use policies, zoning ordinances and design guidelines all can contribute to the goal of meeting our objective.