‘Green’ building policy goes into effect Jan. 1

The City of Eden Prairie, starting Jan. 1, will use its financial and land-use levers to push developers to embrace building standards that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Its new policy on sustainable building standards is part of the city’s effort to reduce Eden Prairie’s overall carbon footprint to net zero by 2050, a goal laid out in its Climate Action Plan, which also sets out targets for electric vehicles and other “green” initiatives.

Greenhouse gas emissions typically arise from buildings using fossil-fuel-based energy for heating and cooling. The city estimates that 61% of greenhouse gas emissions in Eden Prairie are from buildings. Another 37% travel in gas-operated cars and trucks.

Only developers who get public funding for their building projects or use the city’s flexible planned-unit development (PUD) process – often utilized to develop large tracts of land – would be required to meet the standards in exchange for city approvals and building permits.

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Either of these circumstances would be the “trigger” for requiring a developer to construct a building that meets LEED Silver standards, or something comparable, plus meet city requirements for solar panels and electric-vehicle charging stations.

(LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a widely used framework for building healthy, efficient, and cost-saving green buildings.)

For example, Eden Prairie projects that meet the threshold would need to assess whether solar energy could provide at least 5% of their building’s energy with a cost payback period of 15 years or less. If so, the city would require solar panels to be installed when the building is constructed.

City Sustainability Coordinator Jennifer Fierce said it’s hard to say with any certainty how many of the development projects that Eden Prairie reviews would meet the policy’s threshold, but she estimated that it would be in the range of 3-8 projects per year.

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According to Eden Prairie officials, only seven other Minnesota cities have adopted sustainable building policies of this type: Duluth, Edina, Maplewood, Northfield, Rochester, St. Louis Park, and St. Paul.

Studies provided by city staff show that building to LEED Silver standards can increase a project’s cost by 2% to 2.5%. It can also increase rents – 3.1% higher for multifamily buildings, according to Cushman & Wakefield, a real estate company. But the same study also found that LEED-certified multifamily buildings sold for an average of 9.4% higher than non-certified buildings from 2012 to 2021.

Similarly, a District of Columbia study, according to city staff, showed that average rents for LEED-certified, large apartment buildings were 10.2% higher when compared to non-certified apartment buildings, but utility expenses were 7.8% lower and operating expenses were 17.% percent lower. Results were similar for commercial office buildings – higher rents and resale prices; lower utility and operating costs.

Although the Eden Prairie City Council has approved the new building standards, its discussion displayed differing views on how aggressively cities should require developers to meet green standards.

“I have a real problem when we get too heavy-handed,” Council Member Mark Freiberg said when the council discussed the policy this fall. “I believe it should be voluntary.”

But, Mayor Ron Case – who noted we are in “an existential climate crisis” – said the new conditions aren’t that different from the city requiring developers to preserve trees or provide adequate parking.

“It’s a trade-off,” noted city Public Works Director Robert Ellis. “It’s something that, when they’re asking for waivers or some type of an incentive, we would be asking in return for more sustainability with their project.”

“In this day and age, we need this,” said Council Member Lisa Toomey. “We need to look out for our future generations.”

That’s the typical range of debate cities have about green building standards, said Katie Jones, senior manager for community energy policy for the Center for Energy and Environment, a nonprofit organization with offices in Minneapolis and St. Paul. She co-authored the “Minnesota Municipal Sustainable Building Policies Guide” for local governments to use in setting new policies.

Eight Minnesota cities requiring green standards on a handful of projects each year may sound like small change. But, Jones said it’s important to know that other cities are tackling the issue in other ways, and that they all contribute to a similar goal.

“The real central piece here is changing the market,” Jones said, as well as giving a “nudge” to developers and builders to make sustainable buildings a part of their projects from early planning, which she said is a way to keep added costs low or negligible.

“We’re seeing more and more interest by cities” in the kind of policies adopted in Eden Prairie, she added. “This is one of those tools that can help achieve those (climate action) goals.”

(Eden Prairie Local News also reached out to Housing First Minnesota, a state association of home builders and remodelers, for comment. The association did not respond before this article was completed.)