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City staff outline changes to Santa Fe residential green building code, including tighter energy and water targets
Summary
City staff and outside experts presented a proposed update to Santa Fe’s residential green building code, tightening energy and water targets, adding multifamily requirements, and streamlining compliance; no ordinance vote was taken.
Santa Fe city staff and consultants presented proposed updates to the city’s residential green building code at the Planning Commission meeting on Jan. 16, 2025, saying the rewrite would raise energy- and water-efficiency standards, add multifamily requirements, and simplify permit documents.
The presentation, led by Tom Graham, assistant director who manages the building division, and consultant Steve Onstead of Evergreen Building Solutions, described a reorganization of the existing code (currently located in the city’s Chapter 7 green building sections) and several substantive changes. The city’s objectives, Graham said, are to align local rules with the state’s current building code requirements and to reduce redundancy across the code suite.
Onstead, who worked with local water expert Doug Bouchard and city staff, described the principal technical changes: a shift in the HERS energy target from a HERS index of 60 to 55, which he said represents roughly an 8% improvement; an increase in the water-efficiency target from a WERS score of 70 to 65 (about a 7% improvement); and new multifamily requirements including mandatory use of a peak water demand calculator for professionally engineered multifamily buildings and a dedicated landscape meter for developments of more than 10 dwelling units. Staff said those multifamily items were not in the previous code.
Other technical changes include requiring compliance with the prescriptive path of the code for energy, new requirements that kitchen exhaust systems over 400 cubic feet per minute provide makeup air, a new requirement for garage ventilation when whole-house ventilation is met by exhaust-only systems, new as-built utility-disconnect documentation, and third-party verification for most water and energy compliance items. On remodels and additions the proposal would retain radon testing (but not require mitigation unless owners choose it) and require Energy Star or WaterSense certification for replaced appliances and fixtures where the remodel affects functional areas.
Onstead and Graham said the draft removes the city’s prior reliance on the National Green Building Standard within the residential code (a change implemented in a prior 2021 amendment) and moves the city toward third-party verification for many performance measures (ResNet oversight for HERS testing and the Water Efficiency Rating Score/WERS for water). The presenters said the changes are intended to simplify administration for applicants and city reviewers and reduce duplicate submissions.
No formal vote or ordinance adoption occurred at the meeting; staff said the draft is being finalized for submittal to the city’s legal department and will return later in the ordinance-adoption process.
The presentation included detailed technical clarifications: the HERS target reduction is from 60 to 55; the WERS target is proposed to move from 70 to 65; multifamily projects requiring an engineering stamp will need a peak water demand calculation; and projects with more than 10 units must install a dedicated landscape meter. Staff also noted the state adopted the 2021 IECC with amendments (as described in the presentation) and that Santa Fe applies state-adopted codes as required.
Staff and the consultants answered commissioners’ technical questions about fire-code overlap, radon testing versus mitigation in remodels and additions, and the timeline for moving the draft to the legal department for ordinance language.
The presentation was introductory; staff said additional technical revisions and a formal ordinance package will be brought back for review and that they will produce clearer permit checklists for applicants.
Ending: The commission received the overview as an informational staff communication; no action was taken. Staff said they will provide the ordinance-language draft, technical compliance checklists, and an implementation timeline to the commission and other reviewing bodies before any final adoption vote.
