Green building is growing in popularity at a rapid pace. One reason for the increased popularity are states, cities and towns that have passed laws, regulations and ordinances mandating green building. These green building laws, regulations and ordinances will also result in an increase in green building litigation.
Want evidence of the popularity of green building? According to the AIA, counties with green building programs have increased over 400%. Even more interesting, the AIA study only looked at 200 of the most populous counties and found that 39 of them had green building programs, while 9 more are developing green building programs.
With more green building programs, chances of legal challenges increase. This litigation could be in the form of a challenge to a county’s program. Or parties may fail to comply with the green building programs, resulting in litigation with the county or the party responsible for failing to comply.
Among the counties recognized as having “solid best practice examples of programs” is Montgomery County, Maryland. We will take a look at Montgomery County’s program later.