Green that will cost Greensburg

Many of you likely recall that the small town of Greensburg, Kansas was practically wiped out by a tornado last spring. The town of about 1,500 people is beginning the rebuilding process with a master plan in mind, and one component of that plan came into effect last month. I found out in my weekly AIA update that the town council is adopting a resolution requiring ALL new and renovated buildings over 4,000 square feet be LEED Platinum certified, including the maximum number of energy efficiency points.

While I'm all for energy efficiency in buildings, I think the issue I have with this is the degree of compliance required. It begs two major questions in my mind. First of all, what sort of payback period can be expected by buildings achieving Platinum status? Then another important question given the circumstances of the town's rebuilding, who will pay the extra costs incurred by compliance? I'm sure the insurance companies are simply paying whatever they deem a fair replacement value to what was there before the storm struck.

It wouldn't surprise me to see a lot of development occur just outside the town limits to avoid these additional mandates unless the town had a big stick to force builders into line. In the case of a development I'm familiar with, the Crossroads at Salisbury, water and sewer service only was granted once annexation to the city was agreed to, and I can see Greensburg trying a similar tactic with businesses on its border.

This is going to be an interesting laboratory to follow though, because you can bet that cities large and small where government has swallowed the hype about global climate change will consider similar legislation.

And I'm waiting for more states (such as Maryland, they'll jump right in line on this) to adopt a provision like California is threating to, one where your thermostat may be set to the state's liking, not yours. Attention planets of the Solar Federation, we have assumed control.