“It’s a much more difficult question,” said Shiloh Ballard, who, on behalf of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, shepherded the two-year effort alongside the Santa Clara County Cities Association. “How do you determine whether an applicant has met green building requirements?”

The guidelines adopted by all 15 cities do not mandate green building standards, but they do set the process in motion by requiring all municipal buildings to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, standards. For commercial buildings there are LEED guidelines for commercial buildings and builders are required to fill out “green” checklists to become educated about the process.

Green building is not a hard sell in the environmentally conscious Bay Area. But another reason to adopt the same set of standards countywide is that it’s better for builders if all cities follow the same consistent guidelines.

“We hear that having different flavors of green standards is not helpful,” said Joe Horwedel, head of San Jose’s Planning Department. “We adopted LEED for commercial and Build It Green criteria for residential and decided not to come up with our own San Jose standards.”

Whereas policymakers are comfortable with the idea of adopting green building standards, they are wary of pushing the building industry too far. As Ballard pointed out, there is a “lot of trepidation” on the part of builders.

“The entitlement process is already complicated enough,” she said. “Now we’re overlaying another set of rules that staff is not necessarily trained to do. We advocated that cities be flexible and understanding.”

Verification controversy

Many, but not all, cities support independent verification of a structure’s green building features.

Breene Kerr, a Los Altos Hills councilman and environmental consultant, has created a Web site featuring a central database illustrating each city’s requirements. As a green point rater, certified by Build It Green, he’s a believer in third-party verification.

“I object to watering down (the requirements) and letting the homeowner or builder check it off,” Kerr said.

Yet those who support submitting certification to the U. S. Green Building Council, which created the LEED guidelines, know it can take months for the council to process the documents and issue the coveted certificate. The backlog is reportedly into the thousands. That plays havoc if a city decides to require LEED certification before issuing an occupancy permit.

“There is tension between different folks,” Ballard said.

But if cities decide their planning departments must verify, they must have the resources to train staff, tough during an era of extreme budget cuts. Horwedel said he still has some funds for training, but recently lost half of his environmentally trained staff during three rounds of layoffs this year.

The third option — allowing builders to check a list — was dismissed by Ballard as akin to “the fox guarding the henhouse.”

Carrot over stick

Tony Mirenda, president of TBI Construction Inc., said he believes builders would be more likely to support incentives to build green than they would mandates. He supports requiring a minimum level of green features, but to encourage builders to aim higher, offer a carrot, he said.

“It is very interesting to see that nearly all of the cities offer no sort of incentive,” he said in an e-mail.

Ballard agrees that such suggestions are worth exploring, adding that now that everyone is moving in the “same direction,” it’s time to “raise the bar.”

In the meantime, she is working to expand the project to all cities in San Mateo County and eventually to the entire Bay Area. Yet she is realistic about the actual impact of everyone’s efforts given the fact that building is currently at a standstill.

“Even if all the cities adopt (the next phase) tomorrow — that’s great, but there’s very little to evaluate,” she said. “There’s not a whole lot of building going on.”

Green building by the numbers:

• 40 percent: Amount of all carbon dioxide emissions in the country from buildings, according to the Environmental Protection Agency

• 2 percent: Extra cost to builders to incorporate environmental standards, or about $3 to $5 a square foot

• 20 percent: Amount saved in operating costs over the life cycle of the building

Tom Barr is no stranger to developing homes in northeast Springfield.

Barr developed the 100-lot Pearson Meadows subdivision in 2004, where all lots were sold in about 18 months.

The success of that development led Barr to spearhead a second subdivision in the same area – the 155-lot Pearson Park.

Barr’s latest project, however, is not moving as smoothly as his previous efforts.

Construction begins on four speculative homes – those without buyers in place – at the site next month.

But the lackluster economy and banks’ reluctance to make loans – especially for spec building – mean Barr is expecting a much slower build-out in Pearson Park, where lots start at $39,000.

“Where we were able to sell 100 lots in a year and a half before, the number of lots sold per year now will be a lot less – we’ll be lucky to build and sell 20 houses a year,” said Barr, who is developing Pearson Park with Brian Willaby of Richland Homes.

“The challenge is that the banks aren’t making construction loans to a lot of the people they dealt with in the past, and the demand is down for new construction and developed lots,” Barr added.

Barr is not alone. Several developers have started new subdivisions in southwest Missouri in the last year, and nearly all say they face the same issues: slow demand for new homes, lack of lender support and market uncertainty.

“I don’t think we’ll see building where it was a few years ago,” said Branson Realtor Gary Coder with Gary Coder Properties.

Coder is the listing agent for Jay Sneed’s 101-lot Pinnacle Shores subdivision near Kimberling City.

There are 92 lots ranging from $45,000 to $250,000 still available in the Pinnacle Shores development.

Waiting on banks

While buyer uncertainty still plagues the market – interest in the development is “hit and miss” from day to day – tighter lending makes the situation more precarious, Coder said.

“Our banks down here won’t loan anything for spec homes,” he said. “If it’s a custom construction loan, that’s one thing, but with spec homes, I don’t know if there’s a banker down here that will even talk about it.”

Bankers view custom homes more favorably because they are built to the specifications of an identified buyer.

Bob Hammerschmidt, Springfield region president for Commerce Bank, agreed that banks have tightened lending practices, especially on speculative projects. He said the change is due to a combination of lack of available liquidity – most banks have loan-to-deposit ratios of more than 100 percent, meaning money is scarce – and lender concerns about market stability.

“On a lot of speculative building loans, there hasn’t been enough equity, and that’s getting more scrutiny now,” Hammerschmidt said. “I think lenders are considering not only probable scenarios but the worst case, and they’re worrying about the builders’ staying power to weather what will probably be two more years of economic downturn.”

Fast change needed

Developer Jack Stinson hopes that, regardless of whether it comes from banks or from increased customer demand, the market turns soon. Stinson is in the early stages of developing Kelby Creek in Nixa. No lots have been sold in the 109-lot development, where lot prices range from $39,900 to $69,900, because the developer is awaiting approval of the final plat.

Stinson said in addition to banks loosening their hold on their money, the market needs to finish cleaning out its existing inventory.

“We have a lot of inventory sitting around that banks have taken back, that builders are getting rid of at a discount, and (new homes) can’t compete with that,” Stinson said. “But once that inventory gets eaten up, it creates a chain reaction. The people in those $150,000 homes will move up and buy something a little nicer. But you have to get rid of the excess inventory first.”

But once existing inventory is culled, Coder is concerned that restrictive lending practices will hamper builders’ efforts to meet market needs when the economy improves.

“The second this thing does turn – and I see it rounding the bend right now, because there’s more confidence (among) buyers than there was in January – we’re going to have a shortage because there’s been no spec homes put on the books in six to eight months,” he said.