by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
“This Ordinance shall become effective upon signature by the Mayor or upon becoming effective without the Mayor’s signature.”
That sentence is written at the end of every bill introduced to City Council.
Many ordinances, after they are enacted, are never signed by the City’s chief executive but Wednesday morning, Mayor John Peyton signed the City’s new sustainable buildings ordinance into law in celebration of Earth Day. The ceremony was held near the steps of the Haverty’s Building at the corner of Laura and Duval streets. It will soon also be known as the City hall Annex.
When the building’s $13.5 million renovation is complete, it will be the new home of the City’s Environmental Compliance Department, the Code Enforcement Division and the General Employees Pension Fund. The renovation was designed and will be completed using Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards.
One provision of the new law requires that all City-owned buildings are constructed using environmentally-friendly practices of design, construction and operation.
The private sector can also reap the benefits of sustainable practices. The law allows “fast-tracking” the development review process for projects designed along guidelines specified in the ordinance.
“This is an important day for Jacksonville and for the building industry as we take this critical step to ensure that local government is making sustainable building practices a priority,” said Peyton.
The Haverty’s Building renovation includes many LEED protocols including energy-conserving lights with motion and sound sensors and a cap on the roof that reflects sunlight. All of the building plumbing fixtures are designed to operate using as little water as possible and some – the urinals in the men’s restrooms – use no water at all. Paint and carpet manufactured with low levels of volatile organic compounds are used throughout the building and 90 percent of the steel required for the renovation, including all of the wall studs, is made from recycled materials.
The Haverty’s Building is owned by the Police and Fire Pension Fund, which will lease the office space to the City.
Police and Fire Pension Fund Executive Director John Keane said, “We took a building that’s more than 100 years old and restored it to its original grandeur while doing our part to protect the environment.”
356-2466