Shaw tells GlobeSt.com that a working group now needs to devise a specific standard for warehouse and light-industrial developers and owners that can be implemented by the Board of Supervisors. “At the end of the day, we will have a standard by which every new project can be measured for greenhouse gas emissions and know how it affects specific projects,” Shaw tells GlobeSt.com.

The second piece of legislation that NAIOP has impacted to its membership’s favor is the Traffic Impact Fee, which is levied upon developers for land uses dealing with fronting facilities. After several discussions with NAIOP members, County staff and the broader business community, NAIOP ultimately decided to support greatly reducing the TIF through a built-in credit program. However, the industry was concerned that while the proposal reduced the TIF, it did not provide a reimbursement for off-site TIF-eligible improvements constructed by a property owner (i.e., roads that don’t front the property). Through its advocacy team, NAIOP argued that a reimbursement element was necessary for off-site improvements to avoid potential violations of the state’s Mitigation Fee Act.

Again, a motion was unanimously passed by the Board of Supervisors to support the built-in credit program, but also to have staff continue to work with NAIOP on a solution for the reimbursement of TIF-eligible projects. Staff will return to the Board within the next few months with proposed solutions; once again, NAIOP’s advocacy efforts directly impacted the Board’s final decision.

“We worked with staff to have a credit apply to facilities that were not fronting facilities, but that developers were still responsible for paying a TIF on,” Shaw says. “The fee’s going down, which makes it a lot easier for our members to get out there and start doing things.”

As GlobeSt.com previously reported, during a breakfast conference sponsored by NAIOP San Diego in March at the Marriott San Diego Del Mar entitled “San Diego’s Emerging Growth Industries: Drafts to Drones,” four industries were identified as growth markets creating demand for the commercial real estate market here. Derived from four major economies or “dynamic clusters” in San Diego—the military; convention, tourism and gaming; research, technology, innovation and manufacturing; and the county’s local economy, the four specific areas targeted for growth by the organization were unmanned military aerial vehicles, sustainable technology, wireless mobile medical devices and craft-beer breweries.