Yoon to propose ‘green’ tax incentives for Hub
Residents, firms could convert roofs
July 29, 2009
By: Eric Moskowitz
Following the lead of Chicago, New York, and other cities, mayoral candidate Sam Yoon will introduce legislation with the City Council tonight to offer financial incentives for people to convert Boston rooftops into green space, as part of a wider “GreenPrint” for the city his campaign unveiled yesterday.
The proposed one-time tax incentive would give $5 per square foot to residents and business owners who install “green roofs,” transforming traditional rooftops with vegetation, soil, and membrane layers that help reduce storm water runoff, control building heat in the summer, and improve air quality, among other benefits.
The benefit, capped at $100,000, is similar to legislation approved in New York last year that offered similar incentives to New York City property owners.
Yoon said he was inspired by that policy, and by visits to San Francisco and Chicago, whose City Hall boasts a rooftop garden with 20,000 plants, and where multiple incentives contributed to the creation of over 500,000 square feet of rooftop green space last year.
“This is a concept that is taking off in other cities,” Yoon, an at-large city councilor, said yesterday. “Chicago City Hall is like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. It’s beautiful. In San Francisco, I know, even on bus shelters they have little flower gardens, wheatgrass, and whatnot. People may do a double take when they see that, but it should be a natural part of the way we see our urban landscape.”
The Boston metropolitan area, by comparison, has converted far less space, according to Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, a nonprofit industry association. Yoon’s proposal would pay back about one-fourth to one-third of the cost of creating a typical green roof, depending on the size and nature of the garden or installation, according to Green Roofs.
GreenPrint, a blueprint Yoon said he would follow as mayor, calls for a host of changes aimed at reducing carbon emissions, improving energy efficiency, creating green jobs, promoting local produce, and encouraging people to ride bicycles, walk, take the T, or share vehicles instead of driving themselves.
“The GreenPrint is the blueprint for a green economy,” said Yoon, who studied urban planning and transportation at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. “The best way to say it is to live better as a city.”
His green roof incentive – a home rule petition that would need to be approved by the Legislature and City Council – and GreenPrint are the latest environmental salvos in a campaign in which each of the candidates is vying to be seen as the greenest.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who sometimes says he is trying to turn “Beantown into Greentown,” issued a Climate Action Plan two years ago and has promoted a variety of measures to reduce emissions and make the city more eco-friendly. Among other things, he has pledged to plant 100,000 trees by 2020, and he has filed legislation to encourage the use of solar panels and promote green building methods.
“Our approach has been a holistic green building approach,” said James W. Hunt, chief of environment and energy for the city, adding that Boston has been a leader in requiring large developments to meet green standards.
Hunt also said the city is experimenting with green roofs at City Hall and at two Boston schools.
Michael F. Flaherty, also an at-large city councilor, earlier in the campaign released his own ideas for creating “green-collar jobs” and paying more heed to the environment.
Flaherty’s proposals include installing sensor technology to minimize wasted electricity in city buildings, converting the City Hall roof and plaza into green space, and using federal stimulus money for energy-efficiency job training for Boston youth.
“A great benefit of a mayor’s race in Boston is that there’s been a healthy exchange of ideas,” Flaherty said yesterday, before accusing Menino – just as Yoon did – of being more talk than action on the environment.
“Saying you’re going to be green and being green are two different things,” he said.
