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Community Toolkit > Land Use > Green Building > Green Design (Epping)
Green Building Ordinance
Community Profile:
Epping, New Hampshire is located in Rockingham County and has a population of approximately 5,500. Epping is governed by a town administrator and board of selectmen.
The Epping Planning Board began its research into the issue of climate change at the local level as a result of Carbon Coalition and Clean-Air Cool-Planet’s efforts and the Northern New England Chapter of the American Planning Association 2007 Conference.
Planning Board Chair Rob Graham and planner Clay Mitchell both attended and Mitchell presented on some efforts from the neighboring town of Newmarket to explore renewable energy projects, municipal utility formation and generation options.
Upon returning to the Board, the discussion quickly advanced to what Epping could and should be doing. Board members acknowledged the threat posed by climate change and the prudence of diversifying energy sources, and found themselves asking: Why don’t we just require developments to take energy efficiency and sustainable design into consideration?
Project Steps
- Accordingly, Planning Board members began researching similar efforts in other communities (with an emphasis on LEED) and looking into the legal authority for municipalities in New Hampshire to address energy efficiency and sustainable design as part of the land use policy process.
- Next, after consulting several leaders in the field, including Steve Winter (past President of the US Green Building Council) of Winter and Associates in Connecticut, and the Jordan Institute in New Hampshire, Clay Mitchell began drafting an ordinance that would require new commercial development projects to consider energy efficiency and renewable energy and/or local co-generation in construction plans. Read the ordinance here.
- While reviewing the drafts during monthly planning board meetings between September 2006 and January 2007, the Planning Board hosted several presentations (which were televised on the local cable station) by energy experts and policy analyst Clay Mitchell on the science of climate change, energy efficiency technologies, sustainable design principles, and costs and benefits of energy efficiency and sustainable design. They also produced presentations explaining the ordinance, which came to be called "Article 22." View the presentations (in PDF format) here:
- After becoming an ICLEI member in December 0f 2006, Epping adopted the 25 in 25 chapter of the Master Plan. This multifaceted strategy, among many other things, dictates that new residential and non-residential units built have 25% of their energy needs met my renewable sources and/or cogeneration units, to be accompanied by a corresponding 25% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as compared to minimally required conventional construction and operations.
- The ordinance draft was approved and submitted as a proposed zoning change in January of 2007. Read the ordinance here: Article 22.
Board members then identified consultants for the town to oversee implementation and individual projects. These consultants included The Jordan Institute and Waldron Engineering.
Thanks to an aggressive PR campaign launched by the planning board, the ordinance was passed at March 2007 Town Meeting. Click here to read some of the opposition that the ordinance faced.
The ordinance takes a tiered approach to energy standards, with different standards for different sized buildings. Click here to read an overview of the tiered structure provided by The Exeter News-Letter.
Costs and Savings:
Click here to see the preliminary RETSCREEN results, which include detailed information on CO2 emission reductions and payback timeframe.
- The costs to develop the ordinance were a part of the operational aspects of the planning office and the consulting planner’s work.
- The costs associated with implementing the ordinance are also minimal since they represent actions that are already required and undertaken in a planning office.
- The costs to comply with the ordinance are minimal and depend on the options selected by the developer. Based on planning board research, it is reasonable for a building of up to 50,000 square feet to achieve compliance with very little or no up front costs. Larger buildings may incur increased costs, but such costs are intended to pay back within 3 years if the installations track current federal tax incentives and are designed properly to lower the energy consumption of the building.
For information behind these assertions regarding costs, please refer to the Information section below.
Read about Stamford, Connecticut’s LEED ordinance
Contacts:
Clay Mitchell
Town of Epping Planning Board
157 Main Street
Epping, NH 03042
Phone: (603) 679-1202
E-Mail: planningboard@townofepping.com
Web site: http://www.ci.epping.nh.us/
Downloads to Use as Templates:
Article 22 Green Building Ordinance
Epping 25 in 25 Resolution
Press Release
Benefits of Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Design
What is Article 22 and What Does It All Mean?
Article 22: On the Ground--About Insulation and Heating
Information:
On the ordinance itself:
- Click here to read Jennifer Czyz’s draft chapter on Energy Efficient Development in the forthcoming Innovative Land Use Planning Techniques: A Handbook for Sustainable Development.
- Sustainability Workshop Presentation, City of Rohnert Park California, Sustainability Ordinance Workshop, August 14, 2006.
- Los Alamos National Laboratory Sustainable Design Guide, Chapter 4, The Building Architectural Design
- Air Tightness Testing and Measurement Association, Technical Standard 1. Measuring the Air Permeability of Building Envelopes, 01/16/06.
- The Collaborative for High Performance Schools, Volume III – Criteria, Version 1, 11/01/01.
- US Green Building Council’s State and Local Government Toolkit
- Executive Summary, Climate Action Plan. City of Burlington, Vermont.
On Costs:
Links:
Click here to listen to a New Hampshire Public Radio report on Epping and green building.
Town of Epping Planning Board website devoted to Article 22
mgplanning
Burlington, Vermont Climate Action Plan
U.S. Green Building Council, LEED Standards
The Jordan Institute
Waldron Engineering
Building Codes Assistance Project
Other Communities:
Massachusetts
Maine:
- In 2003, Governor John Baldacci signed this executive order mandating the incorporation of LEED standards into state building standards.
New York:
- New York City’s Local Law 86 of 2005 sets green building standards.
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