Landmarks Commission on the Sustainability Plan

Many, many hearings on the sustainability plan this week. But why did it go to the Landmarks Commission?

Because of all the hearings this week, Jeanne Hoffman was not able to be at the Landmarks Commission so they had to postpone it. There are several places where preservation of existing buildings is talked about, but historic preservation as a theme is sort of missed in the report. The reuse of a building doesn’t encourage and promote preservation. They didn’t talk about the issue much, but at least one committee member pointed out that energy efficiency measures often are at odds with preservation, but destroying a building takes much more energy than to have an inefficient building. They will be taking a look at this on the 9th, but the sections of the report they will be looking at are (I had to guess a little on these:

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Background
The City of Madison must work towards becoming sustainable. As a service provider, the City of
Madison and its operations have a huge impact on the environment. The City maintains over 750
miles of streets, occupies over 3.7 million square feet of office and building space, consumes 54
million kilowatt hours of electricity and 1.3 million therms of natural gas, hauls almost 60,000 tons
of garbage and recyclables, maintains 6,000 acres of parkland and burns over 2.3 million gallons
of fuel annually when operating its buses and fleet vehicles. With over 2,700 employees, the City
is one of the largest employers in Dane County. Because the City is both a consumer and steward
of the environment and its resources, it must act to ensure that the current and future needs of its
citizens can be met by incorporating sustainability principles into its organizational philosophy and
operational practices.

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Goals:
1. Improve transportation planning.
2. Foster holistic land use.
3. Support sustainable infrastructure and buildings.
4. Promote and foster local food systems.

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GOAL 2 Foster Holistic Land Use

Ensure the land use planning process holistically addresses sustainability, functionality and design.
Madison should lead the surrounding area in sustainability, while remaining economically attractive.
Sustainability “systems thinking” principles should apply to all City planning.

Preserve and enhance Madison’s unique beauty and character with architectural, urban design, and
natural resource policies that promote and protect a sustainable, high-quality, built environment that
preserves the area’s important natural resources and open spaces.

Ensure that all Madison residents have access to daily needs (e.g., food, health care, employment,
open space/parks or recreational opportunities, and education) within 1/2 mile of residence or
within 1/2 mile of public transit access.

Reduce sprawl growth by 25% by 2015.

Actions:
• Plan and create walkable neighborhood opportunities for Madison’s increasing population. Upgrade walkability in already built out neighborhoods.
• Maintain, utilize and re-invest in existing public and private infrastructure (e.g., schools, libraries, businesses, and utilities).
• Create an inventory of underdeveloped land parcels (e.g., large surface parking lots, and brownfield sites) and encourage development.
• Implement a Transfer of Development Rights program within the County.
• Encourage higher density of single family housing (e.g., additional dwelling units, row houses and small single-family lots near parkland).
• Advocate for creation of a metropolitan planning agency (MPA) that helps implement county-wide planning,
recognizing that current roads will allow sprawl to develop beyond the county lines.
• Establish maximum parking thresholds (e.g., x stalls per thousand sq. ft. per various zones). Require projects that exceed the maximum (via variance) to increase storm water infiltration, increase canopy tree cover for heat island mitigation, and/or install multi-level parking. Remove minimum parking requirements from the zoning code. Encourage shared commercial parking.
• Change requirements for all surface parking, where appropriate, to increase storm water infiltration, reduce heat island effects and other strategies to reduce environmental impacts.
• Develop guidelines for developers and committees to follow when creating and reviewing plans to re-invent shopping malls to better use the land and surrounding parking lots, add density and other uses.
• Grant vacant and derelict properties conditional use for community gardens.
• Expand data collection to track sprawl growth annually using various applicable metrics.

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GOAL 3: Support Sustainable Infrastructure and Buildings
The City of Madison is an example of good sustainable stewardship by reducing energy use and emissions in City facilities, transportation systems, and processes (e.g., sewer and water).

Actions
• Encourage sustainable private development.
• Demonstrate sustainability on all public projects.
• Create LEED or equivalent thirdparty certified construction with tiered incentives based on level of certification.
• Investigate requiring minimum LEED silver or equivalent thirdparty certification for all construction supported by public funds (e.g., Tax Incremental Financing).
• Create project management teams within City agencies to support and encourage developers and builders to work toward environmentally-friendly outcomes. Project Management Teams should be very knowledgeable about City regulations and approval processes, plus know about sustainable design, building and development practices (e.g., be LEED-AP).
• Encourage mixed-income buildings.
• Create incentive programs to encourage rehabilitation of existing buildings and new infill development.
• Create a Mayor’s honor roll and award program for exemplary projects that show sustainability benefits and how those benefits where achieved.
• Promote ‘pocket parks’ within a development that are within easy walking distance. Design the parks to provide rain catchment and provide solar spacing between buildings. Pocket parks with adjacent row houses can provide increased density that is also family-friendly.
• Use high-volume cement replacements (i.e., cement with indigenous or industrial waste components) in all public building and infrastructure projects.
• Provide financing for energy efficiency upgrades to private buildings.
• Create list of measurable and verifiable examples of good case studies that show clear environmental, financial and social stewardship.

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GOAL 2: Systematically upgrade existing buildings, equipment and infrastructure

Reduce overall energy consumption by 50% by 2030 (kWh and Therms per square foot orequivalent unit of measure) in the public and private sectors.

Actions:
Public Sector
• City government prioritizes and accelerates City’s government building and equipment upgrade schedule.
• Reallocate a portion of all City agencies’ operating budgets to the annual replacement of capital assets to
improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. Oversee and ensure implementation.
• Create an incentive for City agencies to allocate operating budget resources to retool capital assets under their control.
• Establish audit program through Facilities and Sustainability Office and Comptroller’s Office to ensure that
budgeted upgrades are spent on the approved items.
• Investigate creation of a Long Term Capital Budget (more than five-years) and “Citizens’ Budget Commission” to better oversee the City’s stewardship of capital assets that affect sustainability and
energy use.
• Create an upgrade schedule for existing buildings with energy performance targets to upgrade: The bottom
performing 30% by 2020 to 69% ENERGY STAR level. The middle performing 30% by 2022 to 75% ENERGY STAR level.
• Create a policy of retro-commissioning existing City buildings for energy efficiency and operation.
• Upgrade one City building per year and certify to LEED-EB: Operations and Maintenance or equivalent certification program.
• Investigate the feasibility and functionality of hiring an energy manager for the City to measure and track efficiencies, savings and carbon reduction.
• Implement low cost behavior-based operational programs that minimize energy use in operations.
• Give preference to LEED certified or equivalent certificated buildings in acquiring leased space for city government use.
• Direct City purchasing and procurement to give preference to vendors whose buildings, equipment, products and services meet some achievable sustainability targets.

Private Sector
• Promote and incentivize upgrading existing commercial and residential building stock to improve energy efficiency, indoor air and building environment quality.
• Gather benchmark information on private buildings related to energy use and its impact on property sales, rental and occupancy rates to show value of upgrading systems.

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GOAL 3: Help ensure sustainable school buildings
Encourage MMSD to set standards for school buildings that comply with City-wide sustainability initiatives.
• Support development of a sustainability office within the MMSD.
• Recommend upgrading school district facilities to green standards.
• Recommend building sustainable new structures.

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GOAL 2: Build affordable housing on sites that are currently underutilized or unsightly to revitalize neighborhoods and provide housing for the vulnerable
• Working with Madison Neighborhood Associations, locate eyesores and/or underutilized buildings, work with
developers to rehab or tear down old buildings and convert the space into new affordable housing, and partner with non-profits to obtain grants to build affordable housing for clients.