News-Record.com

Four members of Guilford County's legislative delegation filed H 519: Greensboro/Energy-Related Development Incentives yesterday at the request of the city. It would add Greensboro to a list of municipalities that can offer developers incentives for energy efficient construction that includes Cabarrus County, Asheville, Charlotte, Concord, Durham, Kannapolis, Locust, Wilmington, Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Harrisburg, Midland, Mount Pleasant and Stanfield.

Legislators up here were a bit, um, fuzzy on how the thing might work in practice, but Greensboro Planning Director Dick Hails was happy to fill in the blanks.

Developers who wanted to take advantage of the incentives would have to show they are building an environmentally friendly process, such as applying for LEED certification.

In exchange, the city could offer things like:

• * A discount on plan review and other fees.
• * Expedited processing of a plan.
• * Increased density for a particular project.

On that last one, Hails said that Greensboro was less likely to offer something like that because city zoning law already allows for pretty high density.

But offering a break of fees, which can run into thousands of dollars on a large project, is definitely an option, as is offering an expedited review.

"I know a lot of developers would probably be as interested in saving review time as getting a break on fees," Hails said.

The request for the new authority came as part of the city's legislative agenda, which said the city would "seek legislation to enhance the ability of municipalities to implement energy-efficient practices and programs, and to remove obstacles to doing so through incentives, funding and research."

Hails said that some cities have struck out on their own to offer these kinds of incentives without specific authority from the state. But, he said, the current law was unclear so Greensboro wanted to have the ability spelled out in writing.

The bill has a pair of pretty friendly House referrals, going to House Local Government I (chaired by Rep. Earl Jones, one of it's sponsors) and the House Energy and Energy Efficiency Committee, where Rep. Pricey Harrison is a Vice Chair. It's also a local bill, which means it's less likely to draw flack from ideological opponents, if there are any.