It is the purpose and intent of the Town of Denton Mayor and
Council, through the adoption of this article, to establish an integrated
approach to planning, design, construction, and operation of certain
buildings and their surrounding landscape so as to mitigate energy
use and environmental impacts, and to promote sustainable development.
This article shall apply to applications for permits in the
following categories:
A. All applications for new construction of or major modifications to
residential, nonresidential, and commercial of greater than 5,000
square feet of gross floor area.
B. All applications for new construction of or major modifications to
public buildings, regardless of size.
C. All applications for new construction of or major modifications to
five or more single-family or attached homes on one lot or as a subdivision.
D. All applications for new construction of residential structures of
any size.
E. This article shall take effect on January 1, 2012, for all projects
not already in the site design review process, and July 1, 2012, for
all residential structures.
Unless specifically defined below or unless context clearly
requires a different meaning, terms used in this article have the
meaning given to them by the currently adopted edition of the International
Green Building Code. For the purposes of this section, certain words
and phrases used in this section are defined as follows:
DEPARTMENT
The Denton Department of Planning and Codes.
DIRECTOR
The Denton Director of Planning and Codes.
GREEN BUILDING COUNCIL
The U.S. Green Building Council, an organization that has
developed and published the LEED rating system to measure the energy
and environmental performance of a building.
LEED
The series of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
(LEED) rating systems developed by the Green Building Council.
LEED SCORECARD
The checklist developed by the Green Building Council for
the purpose of calculating a score on the LEED rating system.
MAJOR MODIFICATION
A structural modification to an existing building that alters
greater than 50% of the gross floor area or results in an increase
of greater than 50% of the gross floor area or where the number of
parking spaces is increased by more than 20%.
NEW CONSTRUCTION
A new stand-alone building or any major modification to an
existing building. New construction does not include any change to
an existing portion of the building less than 50% of the existing
gross floor area.
NONRESIDENTIAL BUILDING
A building not used as a dwelling. A nonresidential building
does not include the following:
A.
Accessory building or structure;
B.
Parking garage that is not heated or cooled;
C.
Any other building characterized as a miscellaneous building
as defined in the International Building Code (IBC).
PUBLIC BUILDING
Any building or facility owned, leased, or funded at a level
of at least 30% by municipal government, including, but not limited
to, water and wastewater treatment plants, water and wastewater pumping
stations, garage or depot. State and federal buildings are excluded
from this category as they are not subject to local government regulations.
There shall be no variances to the requirements of this article, except as permitted in §
128-163D(3) of the Code.
Appeals of a decision by the Director related to this article shall be made to the Board of Appeals as governed under §
38-2.9 of Chapter
38, Construction Codes, of the Denton Town Code.