Regional collaboration helped the City of Issaquah include more green elements in the long-term roadmap for the City’s future.
Last year, the City was in the process of adopting a new land use plan for the commercial core, a document called the Central Issaquah Plan.
The City, through Supervising Building Inspector Shay Weer, has been an active participant in the Regional Code Collaboration, a multi-agency partnership to develop green construction solutions.
The collaboration provides a forum for staff members from multiple government agencies and other jurisdictions to address codes related to sustainable building. It has enabled a broader spectrum of public input than would be possible on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis.
Weer and the City's green building team realized that there was a great opportunity to move at least some of the sustainability code work forward and have it adopted in conjunction with the Central Issaquah Plan.
After some refinement, the City Council adopted the construction waste, cool roof, water-efficient plumbing fixture and insulation-setback provisions of the Regional Code Collaboration’s code package.
Weer worked with the Washington State Building Code Council to enable application of these code changes to residential permits as well. The State Building Code Council has since approved these changes.