City Council Meeting Date: November 2, 2021
To: Mayor and City Council
City Administrator
From: Beth Kallestad, Program Coordinator
Title
Discussion of Proposed Sustainable Building Policy.
Body
Action Requested:
The Northfield City Council receives a presentation on the proposed Sustainable Building Policy elements and provides feedback.
Summary Report:
The City of Northfield adopted its Climate Action Plan (CAP) on November 5, 2019. One of the goals of the CAP is to be a 100% carbon-free community by 2040. The CAP also indicates that building energy use makes up approximately 85% of the sources of greenhouse gas emissions within our city. Cities may not require buildings to be built or renovated to standards that are more restrictive than the state building and energy code unless there is a financial incentive from the city. Therefore, it is reasonable for the City of Northfield to implement policies to help reduce energy usage in buildings in the community especially those it assists with financial incentives. As is noted in the supplemental sheet attached there are other cities in Minnesota who have undertaken this effort and several more are in the process of adopting a policy.
Item PP 1.3 in the Climate Action Plan states that the City should require any new building that receives public funding or incentives to be constructed to green building standards. This action is also found in GreenStep Cities best practice number 3.
In June 2021, the City of Northfield began working with the Minnesota Center for Energy and Environment (CEE) to develop some language and criteria for a possible Sustainable Building Policy. A group of city staff participated in five meetings with CEE to develop suggested criteria for a policy and engaged with stakeholders for feedback. Stakeholders meetings included: developers, architects and builders, the Environmental Quality Commission, the Planning Commission, the EDA, the HRA and an open meeting for anyone to participate. Staff are in the process of drafting policy language to share with City Council. The presentation and questions tonight will help us to finalize that policy.
To help staff implement the policy and provide education and guidance to developers and staff, we will also be proposing to participate in the Efficient Buildings Collaborative. This is an effort started by Hennepin County to bring resources to smaller cities (even those not in Hennepin County) to improve building energy efficiency. Hennepin County is in the process of hiring a vendor to provide education, technical assistance, tracking and reporting to participating cities through a joint powers agreement. Staff will bring forward more details on this as soon as they are available. This contract would be funded through the Carbon Reduction Fund budget.
Alternative Options:
No policy is adopted.
Financial Impacts:
If the city chooses to participate in the Efficient Buildings Collaborative there will be a fee to the vendor based on number of buildings we anticipate.
Tentative Timelines:
Policy brought for adoption on November 16 or December 7 City Council meeting.