Portland to Introduce Green Building Feebates

Officials in Portland, Oregon, have proposed a far-reaching green building program that would be the first of its kind in the country.

Commercial New Construction Green Building Feebate

The proposed green building program in Portland, Oregon, would use fee revenues collected from buildings constructed to code to finance incentives for higher-performing buildings.

For new commercial buildings 20,000 ft² (1,900 m²) or larger, the proposal sets up a “feebate” program in which developers constructing buildings that merely meet the Oregon state building code will be assessed a fee by the City of up to $3.46/ft² ($37.24/m²). That fee will be waived for buildings achieving LEED Silver certification. Developers constructing buildings that achieve LEED Gold or Platinum, or the Living Building Challenge, will receive rebates of $1.73–$17.30/ft² ($18.61–$186.15/m²) depending on the level of certification. The policy also requires buildings to achieve specific LEED credits, emphasizing energy efficiency and water-use reduction, for example.

Multifamily residential properties 5,000 ft² (460 m²) or larger would be subject to the same requirements and eligible for rebates of $0.51–$5.15/ft² ($5.49–$55.41/m²). Larger multifamily projects 50,000 ft² (4,600 m²) or over that receive funding from the City must meet at least LEED Silver and must avoid wood products with added urea formaldehyde as well as vinyl flooring. All existing commercial and multifamily residential buildings will have to publicly disclose energy performance by 2013 but will not have to make improvements.

For new single-family residential construction, the proposal sets performance targets for the percentage of homes certified through either the LEED for Homes or Earth Advantage programs. These targets increase from 20% in 2009 to 40% in 2011. If at any point these targets are not met, the City will set up a feebate structure similar to that used for commercial buildings. Requirements for energy performance disclosure for existing homes were edited out of the final draft of the program.

According to Vinh Mason at the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, the new policy came about in part because Portland cannot institute a building code that is more stringent than the statewide code. So far, Mason noted, about half of the respondents in a public comment period think the policy is appropriate for the city. Another 40% say it is not stringent enough, and about 10% do not support the policy.

Ralph DiNola, Assoc. AIA, principal at Green Building Services in Portland, believes that the policy will likely pass. ”There’s good support for it moving forward among developers and builders that are leaders in green building,” he said. Portland already has a strong green building community, DiNola says, in part because of strong statewide incentives such as the Business Energy Tax Credit. “Sustainability has become so much a part of our mainstream culture in the city, so I don’t think this will be coming as a big surprise to people here,” he said.

One key question remains: how will the City finance the incentives? The City expects the program to be self-sustaining, with the fees from lower-performance buildings financing the incentives for higher-performance buildings. But “if you make a reasonable effort, you should be at the waiver stage,” said DiNola, meaning that there may not be enough fee-paying buildings to fund the incentives. Officials have said that they will make adjustments to the feebate structure as necessary.

For more information:

Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability
Portland, Oregon

503-823-7222