Miami Beach law requires LEED certification on new construction

According to the report, the law was enacted on April 1 and says that contractors much build structures that use less energy and water. The law also states that new structures larger than 7,000 square feet must be LEED gold certified. According to the report, in the city of Miami, a LEED silver certification is required for new buildings only when they are larger than 50,000 square feet. Miami-Dade requires all new county-owned buildings to be LEED silver.

 

The fee was set at 5 percent based on estimates of how much it typically costs builders to achieve a LEED certification, the report says. Under the new law, there’s no fee for LEED gold or platinum buildings, and the fee for LEED silver structures is about 3 percent. The most basic LEED buildings would pay about 2.5 percent.
 

According to the report, the fines the contractors will have to pay will go into the city fund that will hopefully help the community go green. Betsy Wheaton, the city’s environment and sustainability director, told the Miami Herald the city wants to build a fund specifically for sustainability projects like building permeable pavements and improving the beach’s tree canopy.