JUST IN CASE
genesolon
Fellow environmentalists, I’m inclined to believe that the 45 or so people assigned to review the documents completed at recent Sustainable DC working group sessions will be courageous enough to embrace -- and implement-- all of the good, sensible recommendations contained in those documents, and will be reasonable enough to identify and remove from consideration the very few recommendations that just don’t make sense.
But just in case:
I suggest that the Green Economy Working Group March 13th draft recommendation (ID18, Rank18), “Establish a preferred/quicker one-stop shop within DCRA’s permitting process for establishing green businesses” be removed from consideration.
It’s inconceivable to me that any city mayor or council member or any state governor or legislator – or any reasonable person living anywhere – could point out with pride that in his or her city or state there exist, on purpose, two side-by-side public-protecting permitting systems, one publicly touted to be as efficient as possible and one publicly touted to be inefficient.
Nowhere on the planet Earth would such irrationality (political or otherwise) be considered justifiable means toward even the most desirable ends, including those that define something able to be called a Green Economy. Further, as a jurisdiction gets ever closer to the desired goal, i.e., the point at which all business plans could be deemed by expert government agency officials to be “green,” it would be impossible for a government official to announce without embarrassment that the double-standard permitting process had been scrapped.
OK, enough. Please see items 5, 6 and 7 in the document I submitted at Mayor Gray’s One City Summit, a copy of which follows.
EIGHT GREEN ISSUES REQUIRING ONE-CITY ACTION
Submitted for Discussion at Mayor Gray’s February 11, 2012 One-City Summit
by Gene Solon (gene...@comcast.net)
1. Do smarter, more coordinated development and transportation planning! Strengthen and enforce engine idling regulations for buses, boats and other vehicles -- and do everything else necessary to dramatically increase the number of “code green” Air Quality Index days in our nation’s capital! Our health is at stake!
2. Upgrade D.C.’s current vehicle fuel consumption and emissions regulations so that they match or exceed all California state regulations, including its state government fleet requirements – and including its recently passed regulations that increase the sale and use of electric and hybrid vehicles!
3. Mount a government effort to test for – and eradicate – indoor air pollution in all D.C. residences and all other buildings in our city!
4. Strengthen and enforce rules for the containment of noise, fumes, dust and silt at demolition and construction sites, and for the elimination of soil and water contamination there!
5. Upgrade the development permit process by further streamlining and centralization, by improving multi-agency coordination, by raising the level of staff expertise, and by making websites more user-friendly!
6. Strengthen requirements for submission of full-fledged Environmental Impact Statements for all but the smallest development and redevelopment projects, and require expert evaluation of the Environmental Impact Statement early -- before any commission or agency approves any part of development and redevelopment proposals!
7. Enforce Anacostia Watershed Initiative policy! Preserve current residents’ views of our rivers and prevent waterside traffic congestion and pollution by limiting building heights at waterside development projects!
8. Create green jobs in our capital city, train D.C. residents for those jobs, and place them in those jobs!
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Anica Landreneau
Developers in DC I have spoken to would be pleased to get expedited permitting.
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Sheehy, Catherine P.
FYI-the state of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has a Green Tier program through which the government does, in fact, provide incentives such as regulatory flexibility and permit streamlining to companies that make “legal commitments to superior environmental performance through contracts negotiated with the Department of Natural Resources.” The definition of “superior performance” is built upon CERES principles.
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Lacy Brittingham | AIA | LEED-AP | PDC | CPHC
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