Courtesy Recommendation to Council Expected

TELLURIDE – After numerous public meetings the Planning and Zoning Commission will consider recommending that Telluride Town Council adopt the administrative sections of the International Energy Conservation Code, 2009 Edition, with local amendments as its new Energy/Green Building Code standard when it meets on Thursday, Jan. 21 at Rebekah Hall.

“The focus is moving away from green building to energy code compliance,” said former Telluride Planning and Building Director Chris Hawkins, who recently resigned to become the new Mountain Village Community Development Director but has remained engaged in the code update as the department transitions to leadership under its new director, Michael Davenport.

“It’s about energy use these days, not so much on sourcing the right lumber from a sustainable forest,” he said, illustrating what he described as a shift in the planning community in general.

If the code were recommended to council by the P&Z as drafted, the changes would develop a mandatory Telluride Energy Mitigation Program designed to address certain activities perceived by some as using excessive amounts of energy.

“Exterior energy use, larger homes and heated garages represent a significant source of carbon generation in mountain communities. In addition, exterior energy use consumes excessive energy in comparison to a typical home that does not have heated exterior surfaces. Telluride therefore requires that certain exterior energy use and heated garages mitigate or offset these adverse impacts by either the provision of an on-site renewable energy system to offset all of the energy use, or to make a payment in-lieu in accordance with the annual fee schedule adopted by the Town Council,” states the draft code.

The requirements would apply to outdoor pools, spas/hot tubs, snowmelt systems, heated garages, heat tracing of roof gutters or downspouts gas fire pits, permanently fixed exterior heaters and other outdoor heated features, including those for single family residential construction.

The TEMP has proved controversial for some in the development community, however, and fee-exempt areas for heated garages (400 square feet), hot tubs (64 square feet) and snowmelt systems (200 square feet) were incorporated into the draft amendments as a result.

“The main concern was about added construction costs,” Hawkins explained.

The changes would also implement a voluntary Materials Recovery Program designed to encourage the recycling and recovery of construction and development materials, not a mandatory program as originally envisioned.

“There was a lot of pushback on that side of things,” Hawkins said.

“We don’t really have a local system set up for it yet,” he said, explaining resistance to the program, which opponents criticized for its potential to increase construction costs in a bad economy.

“We converted it to an advisory program,” he continued, noting that the town’s mandatory Green Building Code was also an advisory program until it became mandatory in 2005.

“The hope is that it can slowly grow in to a mandatory program,” he said.

“For projects that voluntary agree to enter into the MRP, a minimum of 50 percent of construction and demolition debris generated from every applicable development, construction, alteration, renovation, or demolition project shall be diverted from going to landfills or other disposal means by using recycling, reuse and diversion measures,” reads the draft language.

There would be no fee to participate in the MRP. In exchange, participants would be refunded 10 percent of their Energy Code Review Fee upon successful completion of the materials recovery.

The draft revisions also make changes to the town’s current energy efficiency and performance codes.

Because the Energy Code is located within the town’s Municipal Code, P&Z is not required to make a recommendation to council on the proposed amendments, but is expected to do so as a courtesy.

Ultimately council will review the suggested code amendments and approve, amend or reject them as it sees fit.

“Council has the right to look at the whole program as it has evolved,” Hawkins explained.