Janelle Irwin Taylor
St. Pete City Council will consider changes to its sustainability and resiliency ordinance approved in 2017 that would broaden its application and take into account potential conflicts with projects receiving state or federal funding.
Under the city’s current ordinance, new construction and substantial renovations to city property require third-party sustainability and resiliency verification through LEED or Envision. Both are sustainability measures, but Envision pertains to a broader scope of both sustainability and resiliency.
The update would replace part of the existing city code to ensure it is more broadly applied to renovations and replacements of city-owned facilities. The current section that would be replaced is not being used because of another city ordinance about hiring disadvantaged workers and utilizing contractors with apprenticeship programs.
The update would include provisions to ensure projects using state or federal funds would remain in compliance with rules governing those additional funds even if that means straying from the sustainability ordinance.
The newly revised ordinance would also give the mayor or his designee authority to utilize alternative sustainable development certifications.
The update also addresses sea level rise. It would require significant construction projects on city-owned buildings or land to use the latest regional science regarding sea level rise effects and other climate-related vulnerability in its planning process.
It would require the city to determine whether a project is in an area vulnerable to sea level rise and consider whether the project mitigates that vulnerability.
The ordinance would also require a process for making those determinations and create an arm within the city to monitor results and ensure compliance with the ordinance.
The vote Thursday comes the same day Mayor Rick Kriseman is scheduled to meet with New York City Mayor and potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg to announce a climate-related city initiative.
It’s unclear whether the change to the city’s sustainability ordinance is related to that visit.
One comment
Gary Lopez
January 4, 2019 at 2:47 pm
Sounds like socialism to me! When will the madness stop? Disadvantaged workers? How about we use the cream of the crop? That is how pro sports work, why you want to use anything less? I don’t want a disadvantaged surgeon cutting me open! I want the best that my budget can afford! I certainly don’t want the surgeon I hire to supervise an apprentice do the cutting on me. In fact, why would I care if he was involved in the education of other surgeons? When will this nonsense stop?!
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