A Smarter Shade Of Green?

Evanston, Ill., FER’s hometown, is a tad green around the gills from overemphasizing its “green ordinance” over its need to bring in some green for its tax base.

Until recently, the city boasted a green building ordinance with a 10,000-sq.ft threshold for mandatory LEED certification. But the demands and strictures of the ordinance appeared to be dampening economic development. Evanston had attracted Gordon Food Services to construct a 16,000-sq-.ft. GFS Marketplace Store on a long-vacant site. The Grand Rapids, Mich., company indicated to Evanston officials that it could easily meet 10 of the 15 measures necessary to meet the city’s mandatory LEED certification. But under the city’s existing green building ordinance, that wasn’t enough.

A swiftly amended ordinance now raises the mandatory threshold to commercial buildings greater than 20,000 sq.-ft. and offers developers alternative measures for complying with the ordinance. At press time, there was no word on the status of the Gordon store deal.