“epa” “rules” “regulations”
Continue Reading 2005 Standard for Environmental Assessments Will No Longer be Recognized by USEPA After October 2015
Environmental Issues
Parking as a Scarce Resource
In the 2011 book The High Cost of Free Parking Professor Donald Shoup thoughfully walks the reader through the history of parking in the United States into the present situation in which we find ourselves. Everyone wants a free parking space; but as Professor Shoup explains, there is no such thing as a ‘free" parking…
Clean Ohio Fund Brownfield Program Update
The Clean Ohio Fund, Ohio’s brownfield redevelopment program is still alive and being administered by the JobsOhio .
According to the JobsOhio website, the Clean Ohio Fund is accepting applications for the redevelopment of Ohio brownfield sites. See below for a summary.
Clean Ohio funding requests are now being accepted by JobsOhio and the JobsOhio …
Cross Laminated Timber: Will It Sell in the US ?
Cross laminated timber or CLT, was developed in Austria in the 1990’s as a structural wood building product engineered to replace steel and concrete in building construction.
What is CLT ? It is laminated sheets of wood glued together much like plywood only thicker and much stronger.
Why use CLT ? It is a renewal…
Smart Buildings Done Easy !
Take an old technology which has not seen any real updates in decades, make it internet connected and add a few semiconductors (to make it smart) and radically change the way offices and homes consume energy ! That is what the Nest Learning Thermostat promises to do. See the video below.
Green Leasing Unveiled – Part II
In Part I of our series on the particulars of Green Leasing, we discussed Lease Term and Operating Expenses. Now we turn to a robust area for implementing sustainable processes between Landlords and Tenants:
Interior Alterations and Repairs
A typical commercial lease will have two separate sections, one on maintenance and repairs, and one on…
Marcellus Shale: The Next Gas and Oil Boom ?
If you thought the earth beneath your feet was solid; think again. Land owners and energy industry prospectors are busy in Eastern Ohio, West Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania looking for pockets of natural gas embedded in the Marcellus Shale buried deep beneath the surface. Named for the town where it all started, Marcellus, New…
Value of Walkability
According to walkscore.com a walkable neighborhood has:
1) A center: Walkable neighborhoods have a center, whether it’s a main street or a public space.
2) People: Enough people for businesses to flourish and for public transit to run frequently
3) Mixed income, mixed use: Affordable housing located near businesses.
4) Parks and public space: Plenty of…
Green Leasing Unveiled – Part 1
As the movement to increase energy efficiency and create sustainable operations has swept across the real estate industry, more and more commercial tenants and property owners are expressing interest in “green leasing.”
What, exactly, is a “green lease?”
To be sure there is no form green lease; rather the term describes the evolution from a traditional, split incentive triple-net commercial lease to a lease that aligns incentives so that landlord and tenant are collectively pursuing goals of energy efficiency and sustainable practices. Typically, a green lease will include measuring criteria or rules that implement all or portions of ratings systems such as Energy Star® and the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED™ program.
This post is the first in a series examining in detail some of the changes one may see when using a green lease. Today’s topics: Lease term and operating expenses.
Chinese Drywall Developments
To follow up on a series of prior posts, the Internal Revenue Service will now allow taxpayers with defective drywall to deduct the cost of repairs and replacement of damaged appliances in the year in which the loss occurred. In Revenue Procedure 2010-36, the IRS has, however, imposed certain restrictions which include that the…