3A Public Hearing 2009 0302 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Northern Alameda County Group Oakland -Alameda -Berkeley - Emeryville -Albany - San Leandro January 6th, 2008 Chair Tom Dlugosh and Planning Commissioners San Leandro City Hall 835 East 14th Street San Leandro, CA 94577 Re: San Leandro Crossings Project Dear San Leandro Planning Commissioners, ~,wT L~JI~ The Sierra Club Northern Alameda County Group has studied the Crossings development proposal in San Leandro. The project includes several development aspects that we support, such as; encouraging transit use by being proximate to major public transit terminals; high density infill housing close to retail and/or including retail; buildings that are certified Green Point Rated; storm water treatment via bio-swales; and inclusion of affordable housing for very low income families. We applaud San Leandro's efforts to provide affordable and sustainable housing and we support this project in concept. As a further step towards improving the "sustainability score" of this project, we would ask that San Leandro require this and other similar projects to have gold LEED certification. Though this increases the initial cost of the project somewhat, these higher casts can be effectively mitigated by the savings incurred over time due to the lower-than-industry-standard operational costs which are typical of a LEED certified building ~ . Specific "green" features that the Sierra Club is looking for include adequate bicycle storage, solar thermal (heated water), PV Solar electricity generation, rainwater retention, and other development techniques that help sustainable communities be less harmful to the environment. We look forward to working with San Leandro ,Westlake, and BRIDGE Housing as this project moves through the approval process. Sincerely, /' ~il,~ ~,ti~ ~~~ ~~;~~, ti' ti Jeff Houston Sierra Club Northern Alameda County -San Leandro resident Kent Lewandowski Chair, Sierra Club Northern Alameda County Cc: San Leandro City Council, Mayor Tony Santos 1 Additional economic payback for investment in LEED certification may come in the form of employee productivity gains incurred as a result of working in a healthier environment. Studies have suggested that an initial up front investment of 2% extra will yield over ten times the initial investment over the life cycle of the building. From Kats, G., Alevantis, L., Berman, A., Mills, E., & Perlman, J. (2003): "The Costs and Financial Benefits of Green Buildings: A Report to California's Sustainable Building Task Force."