City Releases Proposed Green Building Chapter Master Plan Amendment

The City of Alexandria has released the proposed Green Building Chapter of the City's Master Plan. The built environment is crucial to maintaining the resilience, health, safety, and well-being of Alexandrians. In recognition of this importance, and as part of updating the 2019 Green Building Policy, staff recommend incorporating these changes into a new Chapter of the City's Master Plan: the Green Building Plan. This comprehensive approach to the built environment recognizes the need to take action to improve resilience, particularly in the face of climate change.

The proposed Plan is guided by three main goals: (1) focusing on the most important and impactful solutions, (2) creating more regulatory certainty, and (3) reducing unnecessary costs associated with a certification requirement.

Following a public comment period that started in April 2025, staff reviewed comments received from the community and developers, and letters from the Planning Commission and Environmental Policy Commission. This led to additional analysis, primarily on the recommended Energy Use Intensity (EUI) targets and renewable energy requirements.

Staff will present the Green Building Plan to the Planning Commission at their January 6 Public Hearing before it is presented to the City Council at the January 24 Public Hearing.

For more information on the proposed Green Building Plan, and to be informed of when it will be considered by Planning Commission and City Council, visit AlexandriaVA.gov/GreenBuilding.

For reasonable disability accommodation, contact Dustin Smith at [email protected] or call 571.447.7606, Virginia Relay 711.

If you prefer communication in another language, free interpretation and translation services are available to you. Please email [email protected] or call 703.746.3960.

About Eco-City Alexandria

Eco-City Alexandria is a collaborative strategic effort to achieve sustainability throughout the City of Alexandria. Eco-cities work to harmonize their natural resources and environmental assets with existing policies, regional realities, and economic and business markets while engaging the community in a collaborative and transparent decision-making process.