Single-, multi-family projects could be eligible for Built Green grants

Builders of single- and multi-family projects in King County could be eligible to receive grant funding through the Built Green™ incentives program, which promotes environmentally friendly construction.

King County's Department of Natural Resources and Parks along with Seattle Public Utilities and Built Green of King and Snohomish Counties have announced a new round of grant incentives for residential project builders seeking Built Green certification in King County.

Single family, townhome and residential community developments that achieve a four- or five-star Built Green certification are eligible. Applications and guidelines will be available online soon at www.builtgreen.net/incentives.html. Applications are due Dec. 21.

A non-profit, residential building program designed to increase environmentally friendly residential building, Built Green is part of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties.

Eligible projects can receive between $2,500 and $15,000, depending on project type and level of Built Green certification achieved. To be eligible for grant funding, projects must meet key goals for water conservation, soil standards, stormwater management, and recycling of construction, demolition and land clearing debris.

Eight grants were awarded in the first round of the Built Green grants, which were announced earlier this year.

gProjects, a Seattle-area speculative design/build firm, received a $10,000 grant toward construction of Urban Canyon, a community of seven five-star Built Green homes in Seattle. "We've done some four-star projects in the past, and knowing the grants were available really piqued our interest to go for the five-star level," said Graham Black, gProjects' owner.

Another first-round grant recipient, Nelse Construction, received $5,000 for a single family home project in Seattle's Greenlake neighborhood. "We worked with our construction and design teams to find a way of going beyond the three-star certified homes that we'd built in the past and successfully reached the five-star level," said Brittany Henshaw, project manager for Nelse Construction.

The King County/Seattle Built Green incentive program was established to encourage developers, builders and residents building new homes to use green-building standards while addressing issues such as higher upfront project costs.

Grant award projects serve as demonstrations of high performance, replicable and green housing for the region, and highlight those builders that are making significant contributions to local communities, the local economy and the environment.