Green building starts to really take off!According to a recent survey conducted by NAHB and McGraw Hill Construction, there has been a 20 percent increase since last year in builders dedicated to green building issues. The number is expected to rise by another 30 percent in 2007 to 64 percent of builders either heavily or moderately involved in green building projects, the survey said.Choosing green will have to be, in my opinion, a financial decision. Witness the recent rise in people using public transit and buying bikes.Is the perfect gasoline storm upon us?Rise of the Neo-GreensStart with supply…. That ensures a steadier stream of production, which will make prices more predictable and will kick-start some economies of scale. Over time, increased demand and decreased production costs will lure additional players, which helps create still greater efficiencies, boosting output and lowering costs.It’s about the economy, stupid. Some early adopters will certainly buy into the green movement because it’s the “right thing to do.” Most will not until they see the direct impact on their pocket books. Simple as that.How can I be more green?
Date Archives April 2006
Charlottesville Blog Carnival
The Charlottesville Blog Carnival is hosted this week by Duane Gran. Next week’s carnival will be hosted here. If you see a particularly fascinating or insightful (or not) post between now and next Thursday at 7pm, please email me.
May Newsletter is out!
The May Newsletter is finally complete. Please email me if you would like a copy.
Search for sex offenders
One of the standard disclosures on our real estate contracts is the Virginia version of Megan’s Law.Now, we have this – a national google mashup of the National Sex Offender Registry. This is our State site (no mashup). Whatever your thoughts over whether sexual offenders are recidivistic or not, this is certainly an excellent resource for my clients.
5th Street/Avon Road coming soon?
If only … A major feature of the project will be a developer-funded public road that will link Fifth Street and Avon Street Extended, a connection that the County is eager to see—especially now that the massive Biscuit Run development has County drivers fretting about increased traffic in the area.It seems that the only time a new road has a chance of being built, it comes from private money. Hopefully the County will ensure that this is a functional road, with bike paths, etc. This seems to be the type of development that we want – anything to help alleviate the congestion on the 29 North Corridor. More information on this and other transportation projects can be found at cvilletomorrow’s excellent Transportation Matrix.Note that this story is from the C-Ville’s new website. Quite nifty. Now they appear to have permalinks, which will make linking to their stories that much better; it’s a shame that their links are so complex.
Where are these negative ads?
I have heard a great deal about the purported negative ads being broadcast by WINA. I caught the tail-end of reports on WVIR and and watched the report on WCAV (who has some of the ad text, thankfully)There are new radio ads that go after incumbent Republican Rob Schilling, and they are attracting fresh attention to next week’s City Council elections.I have yet to actually hear the ads; are they online anywhere? It would be a shame if the Democrats went negative. I like to think (idealistic, I know) that reasonable people can disagree – even in a campaign – and disagree with healthy camaraderie and class. *WINA – please podcast your shows!
Gas prices and real estate
Finally – something to distract from all the talk about a possible real estate bubble – gas prices that may reach four, even five dollars a gallon. These current and projected increases raise at least a couple of questions – Have you changed your daily habits due to the increases? Are companies and their employees going to (have to?) embrace more rapidly telecommuting?What impact will rising prices have on development patterns? Brian Wheeler has an excellent summary of the (almost incomprehensibly large) Biscuit Run development, focusing on the potential location of the elementary school.Several members of the Planning Commission and County planning staff have encouraged a site in a more central location to both preserve the rural areas and to create a school that can easily be walked and bicycled to from nearby homes …Biscuit Run is the type of development we say we want – located close to town and a fairly dense project that will help minimize sprawl. The more people that are able to bike to work or walk to the store, the better the development will be, at least theoretically. Finally, and this probably deserves its own post – if you were designing a city today, what would it look like?