Green Building Law Blog : Green Building Lawyer & Attorney : Shari Shapiro: Calliope Communications, LLC

It is quiet around the office today, giving me time to reflect on the past year and give thanks to all of the GBLB readers, friends and colleagues who help to keep me motivated and inspired.  In no particular order:

The media leaders--Lloyd Alter at Treehugger, Leslie Guevarra at Greener Buildings, the editors at Green Source, and Jonathan Hiskes at Grist

The green law bloggers--Chris Cheatham at Green Building Law Update and Steve Del Percio at Green Real Estate Law Journal

The construction law gurus-- Doug Reiser at Reiser Legal, Chris Hill at Construction Law Musings, and Tim Hughes at Virginia Real Estate, Land Use and Construction Law Blog, Matt Devries at Best Practice Construction Law, Scott Wolfe at Construction Law Monitor

The newsmakers--Sustainable Cities Collective, Greener Buildings, Cleantechies, ENN, Green Source, Green Economy Post , Women of Green, Mother Nature Network, Planetizen

Other special people--James Bedell , Susan Dorn, Stuart Kaplow and many, many others.

And, of course, my loyal husband and urban designer extraordinaire, Seth Shapiro.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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Guest Post: Seth Shapiro, Director of Planning and Urban Design, Barton Partners

So, just as green building approaches mainstream acceptance, the economy tanks. Does this mean that the environment will once again have to take a back seat?  The answer is an emphatic no.   While the building construction and development industries are indeed in for some pain (for those who peddled unsustainable development, deservedly so) the current downturn provides for an opportunity to address some land planning and urban design issues, especially as they relate to sustainable design.

I have often been skeptical of green building as a panacea, especially independent of specific land use policy reform. Selling a building as “green”, even as it continues the development patterns associated with sprawl, is utterly ridiculous. With the release of LEED ND, the USGBC goes a long way in addressing this issue. But I wonder if it goes far enough. What if no building could be LEED certified (Homes, NC, Retail, etc) if it did not achieve at least a minimum of a LEED ND certification as a perquisite?

Clearly, this pause in building activity is the right time to address how we can redevelop the sub- and ex-urbs in a more sustainable fashion. Thankfully, this is exactly what seems to be occurring, independent of any greatly needed government stimulus or public policy shift.

At BartonPartners, where I serve as the Director of Planning and Urban Design, the projects that are making their way to my desk almost exclusively involve repositioning conventionally designed suburban projects for a more sustainable, and often mixed use future (usually independent of existing zoning regulations). Whether these projects eventually achieve a LEED certification or another green building designation is somewhat irrelevant as they, by there very location within already developed areas and often adjacent to transit infrastructure, are being repositioned in more sustainable patterns for future markets.

Indeed, the smartest of our developer clients are investing small sums of money now in specific project planning and urban design studies. In today’s environment, entitlement may be 12 to 18 months down the road anyway, especially in more established communities. While full architectural services are out of reach for many developers and property owners in this economic climate, up front urban design services, which are a fraction of standard architectural fees, can go a long way to position the smart projects for the future upturn in real estate, whether that be in early 2010 or (sigh) beyond.  

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