KAL Construction, Inc.

In San Jose, it's Not Easy Building Green

SMALL PLAYERS FEEL STYMIED BY CITY HALL By Katherine Conrad

When Oskar & Arzhang Kalbali decided to build San Jose's first green retail project, they didn't expect city planners to roll out the red carpet. Neither did they expect to run into red tape. But that's exactly what happened. Whether they asked for financial help to install solar panels, promptness in delivering permits or just some advice on how to build green, the brothers were stymied. Same thing for David Kaneda, who is turning a 1960s-era concrete bank building into the city's first commercial structure to meet its net energy needs from the sun.

Business as usual: Both the Kalbalis & Kaneda thought the city would greet their projects with excitement. But planners treated their projects just like any other. Which is to say, slowly. There was no one trained in sustainability issues, & no one assigned to oversee their efforts. "We told them, `I'm about to make this project happen, how can you help?'" said Arzhang Kalbali. "They said, `Here's some info, the rest of it is up to you.'" Added Kaneda: "I don't get the sense at all down at the rank & file that the (green) message has gotten to those people. It's business as usual."

Amir Kalbali, left, Mahin Adeeb, Oskar Kalbali & Arzhang Kalbali are owners of McKee Green Plaza, a retail project in East San Jose designed to be more energy efficient.

McKee Green Plaza is the first retail project built in San Jose using environmentally friendly construction.

This is a kiosk that the owners of the building envision renting to a flower merchant.

That attitude is in contrast to what newly elected San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed announced in March when he vowed to go for the gold level in Leadership in Environmental & Energy Design (LEED) certification. San Jose, it seems, is struggling to match its "walk" to its "talk." Reed is all too aware of the problems small businesses encounter. "It takes too long. It's too complicated & there's too many hoops to jump through," he told the Mercury News. "And it's not just green businesses." But Reed noted that the city has made some strides. In 2006, San Jose reduced the time it takes to obtain permits for solar panels from days to mere minutes, & lowered the permit fees for installing solar panels. Now he would like to explore offering a financing package to help owners buy & install the panels. In the meantime, he understands the importance of a trained staff. "We have to get people trained & educated about green building, so we're not starting from scratch."

Because it's not easy to build green. Upfront costs are significantly higher, adding at least 5 percent to the cost of construction. For Oskar Kalbali, head of KAL Construction, that meant spending $250,000 more to make his East Side retail plaza green. For Kaneda, it meant spending more than a $1 million. In the United States, some 900 million square feet has been certified as meeting energy & environmental standards, according to the U.S. Green Building Council. But city planning departments across the country are playing catch-up with the trend. San Jose is actually further along than many other municipalities, adopting its first green-building guidelines in 2001 & hiring a green-building coordinator in 2003. The city hosts green-construction workshops & supports building city projects that meet green standards. But no one in the planning department is trained in LEED-standard green benchmarks, an oversight that is about to change.

Evolving industry: Mike Foster, the city's green-building coordinator - the Kalbalis said he helped them connect with a PG&E energy consultant - said that despite the hoopla, green construction is still an emerging & evolving industry. "The private sector really wants to run with green," Foster said. "Employers such as Adobe recognize the tremendous opportunities to improve corporate image & improve the bottom line while improving the environment." But if you're not a big player like Adobe Systems, your efforts may not warrant the attention you'd like. Kaneda's rehab for the headquarters of his company, Integrated Design Associates IDeAs, on Old Almaden Road, has hit one roadblock after another. Sometimes, he said, it was his staff's fault, but sometimes it was not. He wishes the planning staff had been more eager to work with him on issues rather than simply pointing to the codes & shrugging their shoulders. Take storm-water drainage, for example. Kaneda hoped to set up a system that would allow rainfall to percolate through the earth, but planners insisted that codes required the storm water be routed off the site. In the end, Kaneda gave up. Each month spent going back & forth on issues meant another month paying for two buildings - one in San Jose & the other for his current office in Santa Clara. Joe Horwedel, head of the city's planning department, said the description of the staff's reaction was probably a "fair characterization" of how the projects - two of thousands that come through the door - were treated.

Working to change: The department is not set up to do a lot of hand-holding, Horwedel said - even if it's green. "We are committed to it," the planning director said. "It's not been perfect, we admit. But we're working to change the process to be a lot more friendly to green building." First up is hiring a green-building planner once the city council approves the budget. Next is sending at least one planner to the U.S. Green Building Council seminar in Chicago for training. Looking back, the Kalbalis said building green "wasn't an easy decision for us. But at the same time, with global warming, we need to do something," Oskar Kalbali said. For his part, Kaneda hopes the city will improve the process. "We wanted the building to be in San Jose, because San Jose is the major city in the South Bay," Kaneda said. "If we could do it again, I might reconsider that decision." But, he added, "If Chuck Reed is everything I'm reading about him & he follows through, then I made the right decision. If he really is walking the walk."

Workers put the finishing touches on newly poured cement on the ground floor of the project.

These are some of the tubular solar skylights that conserve energy. They are better than traditional skylights as they won't lose heat & won't cause UV damage to carpets & furniture.