Members of the Baltimore County Council have approved a substantial property tax credit to owners of commercial buildings that meet a pro-environment criteria.
The council on Monday night voted unanimously to give a full 10-year property tax credit for buildings that get a silver rating or better according to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green building rating system. The credit would be capped at $1 million per year, said Council Member Vince Gardina, D-District 5, who sponsored the bill after nearly a year of research and fiscal analysis.
Gardina said he thinks commercial builders will “build green” voluntarily in the future, but need financial incentives for now.
Polly Bart agrees. President of the Butler-based Greenbuilders Inc., she told council members last week that problems with her leaky roof, which took two months to fix, had nothing to do with the solar panels on top.
“Green buildings have a sort of pioneering cost attached to them,” she said. “Incentives can help builders overcome their hesitations.”
The criteria encourages energy efficiency. The Century Engineering headquarters, under construction now in Hunt Valley, could meet the silver ratings standards, said company president Francis Smyth. The $6.3 million building uses ample natural sunlight and renewable wind energy, will have an underground stormwater treatment vault that uses sand to filter out pollutants, and will use motion detectors to limit energy consumption in unoccupied areas.
David Pratt of the county?s chapter of the U.S. Green Building Congress said he thinks the tax incentive will inspire other members of the development community to “update their standards.”
Gardina said the credits would be a first-come, first-serve basis and would be capped at $5 million in total county funds each year. That could be reassessed in the future, he said.
