Building Codes Assistance Project

In April, the Atlanta suburb of Chamblee became the first jurisdiction in the state of Georgia to require U.S. Green Building Council LEED certification. Effective April 1, 2009, all new private buildings (commercial, office, industrial, and multiple residence) larger than 20,000 square feet are required to achieve at least a LEED-NC Certified rating. All new city buildings must meet the new standards regardless of size.

This summer, the city of Doraville also adopted a new green ordinance mandating LEED certification for new development. The ordinance is nearly identical to the Chamblee ordinance, but the effective date is set two months earlier to February 1, 2009.

For more details, please view the City of Doraville website. The Chamblee ordinance (see Part II, Chapter 93) and the Doraville ordinance are also available online.

Meanwhile, the city of Atlanta is debating the second draft of its own green building standard for all new construction except low-rise residential buildings. The ordinance as currently written would phase in the standards, requiring at least LEED-NC Silver certification for commercial buildings larger than 20,000 square feet and mid-rise multi-family dwellings (3 to 6 stories) beginning in 2010. All new construction except low-rise residential dwellings would be subject to the ordinance beginning in 2012.

The Atlanta City Council is expected to vote on this legislation in mid-November and has plans to consider amendments within the next year. The Atlanta ordinance is also available to download.

The LEED Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), provides a set of standards for environmentally sustainable construction. Since its inception in 1998, LEED has grown to encompass over 14,000 projects in 50 U.S. states and countries covering 1,062 billion square feet of development area.

For more Georgia code status information, please consult the BCAP Georgia Code Status page.