Commissioners OK green-building code

Commissioners OK green-building codeOfficials delay acting on county house-size limits
By John Fryar Longmont Times-Call

BOULDER — Starting with building permits issued on or after May 1, any new houses constructed in unincorporated Boulder County will have to conform to “green” standards.
On Tuesday night, County Commissioners Ben Pearlman, Cindy Domenico and Will Toor approved requiring energy efficiency and waste reduction in new-home design and construction by adding “Boulder County BuildSmart” standards to Boulder County’s building code.
The new code provisions will apply to all work on new residential construction requiring a county building permit, including new houses, renovation and remodeling projects, and additions to existing homes.
Boulder County’s green-building requirements will escalate with the size of the residential construction project, with stiffer standards applied to larger houses in an effort to reduce both energy use and greenhouse-gas emissions.
County commissioners on Tuesday did not, however, complete work on a separate program that could affect the sizes of future houses built in rural Boulder County.
That program proposes to set square-footage thresholds on new homes constructed in unincorporated areas. It would also require applicants to buy development rights before the county would allow them to proceed with construction of houses larger than those thresholds.
Commissioners did tentatively decide that 3,500 square feet of floor area should be the countywide house-size threshold that would trigger the development-rights purchase requirement.
Subterranean basements of any size would not count against that threshold, but walk-in basements would. Also not counting against the 3,500 square-foot total would be up to 1,000 square feet of garage space and storage areas.
Pearlman said that by not including those basements, garages and storage sheds in the square-footage tally, “we’re still talking about very large structures” that could be built without first having to buy development rights.
Commissioners are expected to resume their consideration of proposed Boulder County house-size restrictions, and conditions for exceeding those limits, on May 6.
John Fryar can be reached at 303-684-5211 or jfryar@times-call.com.
ts