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Chris Ann Giles, 1881 Cortez Court, HBA Executive Director for the eastern division, noted that HBA has been working with the ACWMA and other local consultants to try and come up with a Green Program that is builder driven and voluntary. As HBA embarks on this mission and coordinates it Bay Area wide, it proposes that ordinances are not pushed by cities, and that cities allow HBA to bring back through this working group a program to adopt. This will allow HBA the opportunity to evaluate the best programs and find the key point that brings together the marketing, green building, and the building components with the cities and with other agencies. HBA believes this to be a more dynamic approach in helping the builders to create some ownership on this program. HBA is currently having a problem with marketing Green Building, as no one really knows what it means. Southern California has a lot of success in marketing homes as California "friendly homes." HBA believes that by incorporating this approach, it will have much more success in the Bay Area to work with residential builders. Ms. Hostermanbelieved anumber ofbuilders were already on board. She believed this was more of an education process. She also believed that more homebuyers are becoming aware of the positive aspects of owing a home that is made to be a healthy environment for families, and also a long lasting and substantial structure. She did not believe this would be at odds with what HBA is looking for. She did see some value in at least exploring putting together an ordinance, and she would like to move forward with it. Ms. Giles understood Ms. Hosterman's point of view. She noted that market driven does not work well with mandates, and although there is a better understanding of what Green Building is, there is not a real understanding of it when people go through the components. Therefore, builders are pushing to be competitive with one another in order to raise that educational standard and help create an entire market of people that understand these programs. By working with a voluntarily program that is builder driven as opposed to city mandates, cities are able to get that dynamic going and get the competition between the builders to be able to pull in that buyer and educate them on the features. HBA has seen this approach work in multiple jurisdictions. This approach has been much more successful in being able to spread the program rather doing it ordinance by ordinance. Matt Sullivan, 7882 Flagstone Drive, speaking as a member of the Planning Commission and one of the original instigators of the Green Building activities in Pleasanton, was very encouraged to see a representative of the HBA speaking in favor of developing some type of Green Building Guidelines that developers could live with. He believed the Green Point System as proposed by ACWMA is a good system. It is effective and provides flexibility for builders to comply with Green Building Standards. It also provides some sort of structure and a level playing field for people to work towards. He noted that the Planning Commission spent an enormous amount of time trying to negotiate with developers on the fly, how to get Green Building Measures put into projects, which is not an effective way to do it from the Commission's standpoint. It is also not effective for the builders because it is a surprise and they are not able to plan upfront how they need to cost these jobs, and to understand what the requirements will be. He has heard it mentioned many times by the developers that if the City informs Pleasanton City Council 9 04/06/04 Minutes