Updating Bellevue’s comprehensive plan | Development: Encouraging green building in Bellevue

Building highly energy efficient homes in Bellevue is catching on, but slowly. The city of Bellevue wants to encourage more green building techniques.

February 20, 2015 5:00 am
Jeff Scherpelz’s Built Green home is in the Monthaven neighborhood in south Bellevue
Jeff Scherpelz’s Built Green home is in the Monthaven neighborhood in south Bellevue

Editor’s Note: The city of Bellevue is updating its comprehensive plan. Over the next four weeks, city officials will discuss different parts of the plan on this page. See box on this page for how to comment on the plan and attend an open house.

By Mike Brennan

Special to the Reporter

Three years ago, when Jeff Scherpelz and his wife, Erika Rice Scherpelz, decided to build a super-energy efficient home in Bellevue’s Monthaven neighborhood in south Bellevue, they did so for a variety of reasons.

“I guess partly it’s our philosophy of wanting to conserve resources and make our home as efficient as possible,” said Scherpelz, a software engineer. “But practically, we’ll have lower energy bills.”

The result of their philosophical-yet-practical decision is a comfortable three-bedroom, 2,750-square-foot home. The house captured a five-star rating from Built Green, a nonprofit, residential building program developed by the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish counties.

Green features include LED lighting, triple-paned windows, a ductless heating and cooling system, a green roof, the use of pervious surfaces on part of the property and the preservation of trees and natural vegetation. The house is also pre-wired to accommodate rooftop solar panels in the future.

Building highly energy efficient homes in Bellevue is catching on, but slowly. Since 2005 there have been 89 Built Green homes constructed in Bellevue, according to the Master Builders Association, but only eight of those got a five-star rating.

The city of Bellevue wants to encourage more green building techniques like those at Scherpelz’s home and we’re taking steps to make that happen. We have several staff in our Development Services group who are knowledgeable about these techniques and standards. Permitting a green building project takes no longer than a conventional project and we’re ready to assist anyone interested in doing so.

In addition to our experienced staff, we now have an online permitting system that makes the permit process in general easier and more efficient for customers. More specifically, we’ve streamlined permitting for small-scale, solar photovoltaic projects, making it simpler and more cost effective for residents to install rooftop solar panels on their homes.

The issues of green building and energy efficiency are addressed in the draft update of the city’s Comprehensive Plan, which is currently underway. Last updated in 2004, the Comp Plan is the community’s vision for the future of Bellevue, guiding city investments in infrastructure and policy. It helps define the kind of city we want Bellevue to become.

The plan addresses a wide range of topics, including land use, housing, transportation, parks, economic development and human services. Through the plan, Bellevue can encourage a strong local economy, schools and colleges, and a healthy environment.

In the draft Comp Plan Update, language about green building calls for the city to “Support the use of emerging best practices in the area of green building and site design through the use of pilot programs and model ordinances.” Another section states that “Green building and low impact development are key strategies to balancing urban growth with environmental protection and achieving Bellevue’s long-term environmental sustainability.”

That’s our big picture. For Scherpelz, it’s more particular. “It’s definitely worthwhile,” he said of his Built Green home. “The energy savings and personal comfort are worthwhile, even if you don’t care about save the planet type stuff.”

Mike Brennan is director of development services for the city of Bellevue. City staff contributed to this story.

Comment on Comp Plan

The city of Bellevue is updating its Comprehensive Plan, the community’s plan for shaping the future of the city. Your thoughts and suggestions are encouraged.

If you want to comment on the topic highlighted in today’s story, or any other section of the draft Comp Plan Update, here are ways to do it: