Construction Projects: The New Endangered Species?

8:00 AM - 9:00 AM
Las Vegas Convention Center, South 232, Level II
Track: Community Design & Development
Continuing Education: NAHB – 1 hour
Level: Novice

Since 2009 there has been aggressive action taken by several federal agencies to develop new environmental policies, programs and strategies. Regulators are eyeing additional storm water management rules for home builders as a way to keep runoff from hurting nearby water bodies, degrading water quality (the
purview of the Clean Water Act) and aquatic habitat (watched over by the Endangered Species Act). These actions have resulted in an unprecedented number of new and revamped environmental regulations addressing stormwater management, endangered species and critical habitat designation, clean air
and climate change. For these regulators, a big solution is low impact development (LID) devices such as rain gardens, pervious concrete and other systems that minimize the impact of land-use changes. Do these LID practices make sense for your project? Do
they effectively satisfy your ESA obligations? If not, what do you do? This session will answer all these questions and many more.

Moderator:
Charles Ellison, Miller and Smith, McLean, VA

Speaker(s):
Ty Asfaw, NAHB, Washington, DC
Arthur Castle, BIA of Washington-State, Olympia, WA
Robert Kleeman, Sneed, Vine & Perry, P.C., Austin, TX