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Identify Projects Subject to the Policy Although a policy itself specifies minimum requirements for subject developments, the city must create a process to easily identify incoming projects that meet those requirements. This is accomplished by leveraging existing development review processes. Planners also often use checklists and review guides to ensure projects meet required development policies and codes. For that reason, we recommend cities use this process to integrate a review for the sustainable building policy. Cities should make sure someone with sustainability expertise, either sustainability staff or other designated reviewers, attend development review meetings. Educate Project Teams Once the city has identified an eligible project, the policy should be reviewed with the project’s development team to ensure they understand all the components of the policy. This is a great opportunity for development teams to ask questions and for city staff to champion their policy. Community Highlight: Saint Paul, MN The City of Saint Paul uses funding and size minimums to determine the projects subject to their sustainable building policy. After public project funding is requested and before it is approved, the staff member responsible for managing the policy is notified of the project. Staff send a letter to the project team detailing compliance requirements for the project, and soon after they hold a meeting involving the project team to review these requirements. Sustainability staff leverage this opportunity to walk through the policy step by step to make sure there are no surprises for the project team. This meeting should be scheduled after a project application or funding application is received to ensure policy criteria can be incorporated as early as possible in the design process. Having the right people at the meeting will ensure that the policy expectations are clearly communicated, and any questions are addressed. On the city’s side, this meeting should include those involved in managing the policy, such as sustainability and planning staff. If the city is working with an external collaborator to help with technical assistance, including them in this meeting would be advantageous. From the project team, the architect and owner’s representative should be invited so that the team responsible for designing and funding the project understand the expectations. Ensure Compliance A best practice for compliance is for cities to connect project teams with external collaborators who are technical experts in both the development process and sustainability requirements. Cities then track compliance with the list of requirements. Because most projects that have been subject to sustainable building policies in Minnesota have been commercial, mixed use, or large multifamily, city staff have relied on the B3 Tracking Tool to monitor compliance for most recommended overlay criteria and then have separate manual tracking mechanisms to track any remaining criteria. 8