Changes to NCC LDIA Requirements

The New Castle County Department of Land Use has recently revised their bonding requirements for the Land Developers Improvement Agreement (LDIA). These changes can/will save developers money when they are not proposing to start their project immediately upon recordation. The following scenarios explain how the developer can take advantage of the new LDIA bonding/letter of credit requirements.

1. The developer has received the LDIA from NCC for execution and issuance of the Bond/LOC based upon the previous process. How do we go about getting the LDIA using the new bonding requirements?

The Developer should execute and submit the pending LDIA agreement with a performance bond, letter of credit, or certified check for $5,000.00 to the Department of Land Use. Part III of the LDIA will subsequently be revised by Department staff to reflect the accurate surety amount. Please note that the Department has no obligation to notify those individuals regarding the revised bonding requirements.

2. A project has not been recorded, but the LDIA has been recorded with the previous bonding requirements. How does the developer get back the previous bond and provide a new bond based upon the new process.

If construction has not begun, the Owner/Developer may request (by written request to the Land Use General Manager) that the LDIA be amended, whereupon a new bond in the amount of $5,000 in favor of New Castle County must be submitted to the Department. The existing surety instrument will be released upon recordation of the amended LDIA. Again, the Department has no obligation to notify those individuals regarding the revised bonding requirements.

3. A project has been recorded along with the LDIA based upon the previous process. How does the developer get back the previous bond and provide a new bond based upon the new process?

If construction has not begun, the Owner/Developer may request (by written request to the Land Use General Manager) that the LDIA be amended, whereupon a new bond in the amount of $5,000 in favor of New Castle County must be submitted to the Department. The existing surety instrument will be released upon recordation of the amended LDIA. Again, the Department has no obligation to notify those individuals regarding the revised bonding requirements.

Notes:

In the event that construction has commenced for a development project, all parties to the recorded LDIA will be subject to the existing Agreement, laws, and regulations in effect upon submittal of the application.

An annual administrative fee will apply until the full performance guarantee is posted, or until the fee is no longer required by the Department (ie. plan expiration, withdrawal, etc.).

As always, Landmark/JCM continues to work on behalf of our clients through all aspects of their project development. Please contact us so that we can make your next project a success.

Another Successful Pig Roast

The Green Building Council of the HBADE held their third annual Pig Roast, and it was as popular as ever.

Several speakers promoted green building, discussing pervious pavement and house wrap. DNREC Secretary Collin O'Mara, flanked by several aides, offered his comments about our new co-jointly-assembled Green 4 Green new home rebate program. As most are aware, each home must be certified green - by the National Green Building Program, as endorsed by HBADE, or LEED.

Perfect sunny weather combined with the star of the day - the pig. Great food, a little education, a lot of marketing interaction and entertainment combined to make this a successful event.

Congrats to the Green Building Council and the HBADE.

Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico

The image above depicts the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico where nothing can survive. However, if you look at the date, 2008, this is not the result of the recent oil spill.

This 8,000 square mile dead zone in 2008 is one of the largest in all of the earth's waters and it comes back year after year, larger than the year before despite efforts to reduce it.

There is no question that the recent Gulf oil spill is a catastrophe and at about 7,500 square miles, the spill is almost as large as the 2008 dead zone. With good planning, the clean up of the Gulf over the next few decades will also address the ongoing dead zone problem as well as the oil spill.

The only difference between the previous dead zones over the last few decades and the oil spill, is that we have one company to point our finger at and blame for the dead fish, birds, shrimp and crabs. With previous dead zones we would have had to blame the Midwestern farmers, not a particularly popular group to blame since they provide us with food.

In today's world, we all need oil almost as much as we need food and we all should share the blame for the previous dead zones in the Gulf as well as this latest catastrophe. We will all have to make sacrifices to repair the damage to the Gulf, are you ready?

Contact LandmarkJCM for all of your Engineering and Environmental needs.

Marketing Green Homes

Nations Building News has a great article on marketing of green homes.

Here is a excerpt:


Included in the mix of possible customers are the true environmentalist, who is sophisticated and will give some thought to the products going into the home and wants to know more about the philosophy and operations of the company; the concerned mother who is worried about poisons in the home; the socially conscious hipster who wants to be seen doing the right thing; the patriot who cares about the bearing on the national interest of such global issues as energy consumption; the self-sufficient survivalist family that home-schools its children; and the technology geek, he said.

View the article here.

For more information on building green, contact Howard Fortunato at LandmarkJCM.

We are ruining the earth....right?

Here is a fascinating article that puts the human impact on the earth in perspective.

Click here.

Some of the points:

• If we were to feed the current population with the farming methods of the 1960s, we would need to cultivate 82% of the land surface of the earth rather than the current 34%.

• If the population of the earth became hunter-gatherers, we would need 54 earths to support them.

Enjoy!

Announcement of Green for Green

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) today congratulated the Home Builders Association of Delaware and state officials on the creation of a program that offers cash incentives for building homes certified by the NAHB Research Center to the National Green Building Standard.

“This is significant news for home buyers in the First State,” said NAHB Chairman Bob Jones, a home builder and developer in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. “These incentives help bring green homes down to a more competitive price point, and that’s especially important for today’s consumer.”

Delaware Green for Green is a partnership between home builders and the state Department of Natural Resources of Environmental Control. The rebates range from $3,000 for homes built to the Silver level of the standard to $5,000 for Gold and $6,000 for the Emerald level.

The incentives are structured to reflect the progressively more strict requirements of the standard: For example, homes built to the Emerald level are built to be 60 percent more energy efficient than homes built to prevailing building codes.

All homes must be independently verified and then certified by the NAHB Research Center. Additional information and participation requirements are at www.degreen4green.com.

“In partnership with our state’s leaders, Delaware builders continue to lead the nation in using green building technology and building energy-efficient homes,” said HBA president Mark Grahne of Atlantic Homes. “Our members have built more green homes per capita than any other state. Delaware is a small state but we have a big agenda: We want to spur demand for energy-efficient homes, thereby increasing jobs while reducing our carbon footprint. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

NAHB Research Center President Mike Luzier said the Delaware program is another indication of the strength of the National Green Building Standard, the first residential green building rating system to be certified by the American National Standards Institute.

“While Delaware Green for Green applies to new home construction, the standard can also be used to score, verify and certify remodeling projects and residential developments. Because of its flexibility, ease of use, and the strength of the third-party certification, the National Green Building Standard makes sustainable construction accessible to the mainstream home buyer,” Luzier pointed out.

In addition to energy efficiency, the standard scores and rates new homes for resource and water efficiency, indoor environmental quality and lot and site development. A homeowner’s manual is also mandatory under the standard to help ensure the home is maintained and operated to best reap the advantages of the home’s green features.

“I’m very encouraged that other states are looking to this new Delaware program as an excellent example of an incentive program with clear environmental and economic outcomes,” Jones said.

“This is also a case study for what makes a successful public-private partnership: In this case, the state’s home builders, environmental officials, and the third-party NAHB Research Center. Delaware Green for Green is poised to be a home run,” Jones said.

For more information on the program and for home verification, contact Howard Fortunato at LandmarkJCM

An Update on Chesapeake Bay Regulatory Activities

An Update on Chesapeake Bay Regulatory Activities

By Glynn Rountree, NAHB

Staff of the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program Office have their noses to the grindstone as they feverishly work to complete the computer modeling and the analysis of the modeling results necessary for the proposal of the Chesapeake Bay TMDL this fall.

Last year, the EPA expected that the TMDL would be proposed in May, but that proposal date has now been pushed back until sometime in the fall because of a number of issues cropping up, including working out the kinks in the latest updates to the modeling software. Nevertheless, the EPA is committed to finalizing the Bay TMDL by the end of this year with an expectation that new restrictions on nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment discharges will be reflected in all NPDES permits in the bay watershed in 2011.

While the EPA is concentrating on putting together the TMDL, the states in the bay watershed are busily putting together their Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs), which will contain the details of the actions that each state will take to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment loadings during the period of 2011 through 2017, which runs to the midpoint of the bay restoration program.

By 2017, each state is expected to have achieved 60% of the pollutant reductions necessary to meet their state TMDL water quality goals, and to have completed an outline of how the state will achieve the remaining pollutant reductions by the end of 2025.

Because of the severity of the pollutant reductions needed and the lack of state experience in putting together WIPs, the EPA is not expecting the states to finalize their WIPs until sometime in 2011, after the TMDL has been finalized. In addition, each state must publish its two-year milestones for the 2012-2014 period by January 2012. The two-year milestones consist of short-term actions and goals that the state will use to comply with the new requirements.

Because of the many challenges that the EPA and the states face to complete the TMDL by the end of 2010, only a very short public comment period might be provided for the proposed rule, perhaps as little as 30 days. NAHB has used several forums to voice its opposition to a shortened comment period for the proposed rule, even though the EPA has not sought public comment on the matter.

On May 6, the EPA met with representatives of the “development community” at the NAHB offices in Washington, D.C. Attending the meeting were NAHB staff members, developers, builders and representatives from other trade associations involved in development activities.

Prior to the meeting, the EPA aired a three-hour on Chesapeake Bay issues of interest to the development community. The intent of the morning webinar and the afternoon meeting was two-fold:

• For EPA to provide the latest thoughts on potential new Chesapeake Bay TMDL requirements for development and redevelopment
  
  
• For NAHB to talk to EPA about its concerns, comments and suggestions concerning the potential new Bay requirements. At EPA’s request, other development organizations were invited to listen to the webinar and discussion and participate if they wish. NAHB also provided a conference call number for its members to listen in to the afternoon meeting.

The EPA made plain that the TMDL will be very challenging and that all stakeholders should be working with their particular state to provide their input to the state as it develops its plans for meeting the TMDL requirements.

During the meeting, both NAHB and the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program Office expressed their desire to establish a long-term relationship to continue the discussion of new requirements affecting development and redevelopment. It was also mentioned that other federal agencies that lend money to developers, and those that have an interest in affordable housing, have been missing — but should be a part of — these storm water discussions about new requirements on development.

For more information, contact Jim McCulley at LandmarkJCM

EPA may VETO existing wetland permit

In an unprecedented move, the U.S. E.P.A has announced that it may veto a wetlands permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers two years ago for an ongoing mining operation.

See the article here.

Contact LandmarkJCM for all of your wetland permitting needs.

Green Homes Sell Faster!

A recent article from "Nations Building News"

Click here to learn more about selling green homes

LandmarkJCM has been leading the way on Green Building for several years. Since certifying the first Gold home in the Nation, certifying the most homes in Delaware (by far) and being named as one of the most active verifiers in the country.

LandmarkJCM employee, Howard Fortunato, has been president of the Green Building Council of the Homebuilders Association of Delaware for two years and helped them win a Green Building Award presented by the National Association of Homebuilders last month.

Want to sell more home? Build Green! Contact LandmarkJCM today and we will show you how.

Amphbian and Reptile Lecture with Live Critters

Mick McLaughlin of LandmarkJCM will be giving a lecture at Prime Hook.

Click here for details

You can contact Mick at mick@jcmenv.com or call the Corporate Office at 302-323-9377 and ask for one of our biologists.

Better Late than Never

I read this article on Earth Day and marked it for blog posting and then forgot about it.

It is easy to forget the progress we have made on the environmental front when we are always confronted with bad news about pollution, global warming and oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico.

Just a little something to add some perspective:


Link to Article

Zero Energy Homes First Gold NGBS Standard in DE

Congrats to Lance Manlove at Zero Energy Homes for completing the first Gold Certified home in Delaware under the National Green Building Standard! This program, unveiled in 2009, promotes greater enhancements in energy and water efficiency, indoor air quality and all the other aspects which are contained in the orignal Green Building Guidelines. While the original Guidelines program brought many green certified homes in Delaware, it has been recently replaced with the Standard program.

This beautiful home in Rehoboth Beach includes many green aspects including geothermal heating and cooling, wide use of local/indigenous materials, low flow plumbing fixtures and loads of other green features. What a truly green home!

Congrats again to Lance Manlove and Zero Energy Homes for achieving this First!