Tempe staff update council on Green Construction Code implementation; residents debate housing cost impacts

Brienne Fischer, sustainability division manager, and John Hehart, interim deputy director for building safety, delivered an informational update on the International Green Construction Code (IGCC) and related implementation work. Fischer summarized the city's prior action: in November 2023 the council adopted the 2018 IGCC as mandatory for new city buildings and voluntary for private development; the current update reports on voluntary uptake and staff preparation for a proposed 2024 code adoption for municipal buildings.

Fischer and Hehart highlighted staff actions to support implementation: hiring a green building energy conservation specialist, staff completing green construction certifications, and the recent launch of SolarAPP+ for residential solar and battery permits. Fischer said the SolarAPP+ rollout is intended to speed permitting, noting residents "will have a permit within 24 hours" for qualifying projects.

Staff also described a new tracking mechanism that records voluntary IGCC element adoption among private developments; the system is intended to produce clearer data to guide future code recommendations. Fischer told council the city plans public hearings on the suite of model code updates (including the 2024 IGCC) with an in-person hearing on April 1 and a council adoption item targeted for late April or early May.

Public commenters framed the debate differently. David Sokowski (Tempe resident) told council, "This isn't a good time to implement more building codes in the city of Tempe," arguing that additional regulation increases development costs and asking whether federal guidance could affect funding. In contrast, Kimman Young (Tempe resident) supported the IGCC process and said the city's phased and collaborative approach was meant to avoid adding costs while improving long-term affordability.

Council members asked staff to return with clearer uptake metrics: not just counts but percentages of all developments adopting voluntary elements, which elements are most commonly accepted, and dollar-value projections for operation- and lifecycle-savings that could help developers and the public evaluate trade-offs. Staff noted that early voluntary trends show energy and water-efficiency elements are easier to adopt than some measures tied to urban cooling (for example, requirements to limit impervious surfaces on large portions of a site).

Next steps: staff will refine the tracking data and return with clearer statistics and comparative materials (including examples from other Arizona cities), and the city will hold the scheduled public hearings on the code updates beginning April 1.