In the summer of 2004, Whatcom County’s Planning and Development Services Department (PDS) decided that it should get involved in the small, but growing green-building community of Whatcom County.  Shortly thereafter, Wain Harrison, a supervisor in the Building Services Division of PDS, joined the Building Industry Association’s Built Green Committee.  Over the next several months, he participated with the Committee in developing its Built Green checklist, which provides builders with over 260 ways they can improve the environmental performance of the structures they build.

After several committee meetings and discussions about green building incentives, Harrison was asked in the fall of 2006 to look into potential incentives that could be implemented through the County Planning Department.  After studying the processes set in place by other organizations, he determined that Whatcom County’s critical first step would be to give priority to plans designed with green building in mind.  Through further research and discussion among the Building Services staff, the following incentive was proposed:  Plans registered with either the BIA’s Built Green Program, the US Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Program or similar recognized and approved program, would be “fast tracked” in the plan check phase, once all the proper documentation was in place.

In other words, once a builder registers with an approved program, and shows a good-faith effort to pursue certification based on the building plans, those plans will be flagged as “green” and moved to the front of the line for plan review. 

The biggest potential barrier to implementation, foreseen by Harrison and the Building Services staff, was the appearance of giving preferential treatment to specific plans or builders.  By using registration with an established and recognized third-party organization to gauge each plan, the process was put on a performance-improvement level that would compensate for this prospective issue.

The fast-track plan review was signed into formal policy in December of 2006.  Although Building Services has seen a growing interest in green building, thus far only a few projects have gone through the fast-track process.  However the procedure itself has worked well in those few instances, and Whatcom County Building Services looks forward to the opportunity to test this process on many more projects in the future.

For more information on the fast-track plan review, contact Wain Harrison at WHarriso@co.whatcom.wa.us or at (360)738-2493.