Granite Countertops Better Staron, By Mike Freeman UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER November 1, 2007 Del Sur is going green. Developers of the subdivision in Carmel Valley plan to install solar panels on 20 percent of the project's eventual 4,500 homes. The community's sales office/information center is the only building in San Diego County to achieve a LEED Platinum rating, the highest given by the U.S. Green Building Council for sustainable, energy-efficient design. Yet when potential home buyers face the choice of paying $15,000 for solar panels or spending a similar amount on granite countertops, they almost always go with the granite, said Fred Maas, chief executive of Black Mountain Ranch LLC, the developer of the project. This illustrates how advocates for green building – perhaps the hottest trend in the construction industry – still have some convincing to do. The case for going green was the subject of a forum this week at the University of San Diego's Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate, which featured developers, builders, consultants and academics. The conclusion of many of the speakers is that green building is getting easier as more contractors gain experience doing such projects. But many developers remain skeptical about whether the benefits pay off. Homeowners worry about the aesthetics and maintenance of solar panels, Maas said. They're also concerned about paperwork hassles for government rebates and dealing with utilities. Meanwhile, some commercial developers doubt they'll be able to charge high enough rents to recover the higher costs of constructing a building certified through LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. A LEED building can cost 1 percent to 7 percent more to construct than a non-LEED structure, according to current estimates. Research is beginning to suggest the payoff exists for building green – at least for commercial structures. Norm Miller, a professor and director of academic programs at the Burnham-Moores Center, conducted a study that found green buildings nationwide enjoyed a substantially higher price when they sold than their nongreen counterparts – in the range of 30 percent higher per square foot. More work needs to be done on the study, which used data from real estate research firm CoStar of Maryland to compare Energy Star-rated buildings with non-Energy Star rated buildings, Miller said. Also see Electric Radiant Floor heating