Duany Predicts Decline of LEED Standard.
May 10, 2011
March/April: 2011, Sustainable Communities, “Duany Predicts Decline of LEED Standards.” www.p4sc.org
“Decrying the high cost of “optimization” of development in a lean time” Andres Duany, principal in the visionary firm of Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company(DPZ) and co-founder of the Congress for New Urbanism, “called for a return to commons sense development principals that harken back to the 19th Century and predicted declining use of the LEED standards for building efficiency.”
Mr. Duany was speaking at the “New Partners for Smart Growth” conference held in California. The article highlighted Mr. Duany’s comments regarding the “the excessive regulation of development and the high cost of certification of building under the U.S.Green Building Council’s LEED rating system.”
Amen!Amen!Amen! The key words above are “common sense.” One of the unfortunate effects concerning popular trends in the United States is the swing of the pendulum. When we get onto something, we throw common sense implementation right out the window in a rush to swing the pendulum 180 degrees in another direction. No creeping along for us. We want and we want it now.
The fact remains that many planning boards are staffed by over zealous, inexperienced, community activists and concerned “citizens,” who view builders and developers as rapers and plunderers of the earth. In trying to make up for perceived past flaws, the approving authorities haughtily feel these plunderers of the Earth need to be shown the proper path and to hell with the fact that they have to make a profit and people have to pay a higher prices for building and home construction. It isn’t their money and they have the power. Much like religious fanatics they want 100% implementation today, not tomorrow and to hell with common sense.
What the majority of people forget is that without builders and developers there are no buildings. We would all still be living in caves without them. There would be no built environment. Keep that in mind, “No Builders, No Developers, No Buildings.” Keep in mind also, “No Money, No Profit, No Builders or Developers.” Even non-profit builders and developers have to make a profit or they to go out of business when the grants and specialty money dry up.
The reality of the situation is the more education we have, the more knowledge we gather, the more we lose touch with reality and common sense. Without common sense approaches we will see the vast majority of people in the United States turn there backs on the “Green_Sustainable Building” movement, much as they did in the 80′s. No matter how hard one tries, consumers still shop their wallet and if it doesn’t make economic sense, they can’t afford to do it. As the old saying goes, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink.” Common Sense has to rule the day. Sometimes as Duany states, “There are many low cost ways to get 85% of benefit of today’s standards,” and 85% of something is better than 100% of nothing.
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