Councilman Upset Green Roofs Cost City $40,000

DENVER (CBS4) - Covering a couple of roofs over garage entrance ramps with drought resistant wildflowers cost the city an extra $40,000, and one Denver city councilman now says the money should not have been spent.

"It just doesn't make any sense," said Councilman Charlie Brown, who represents southeast Denver. "Wrong project at the wrong time in the wrong place."

The project is just wrapping up, according to city administrators. As part of a larger remodel of the Denver Police Department Plaza at 13th and Cherokee Streets, the city constructed canopies over entrance and exit ramps to the police department's basement garage. The canopies -- one measuring 18-by-50 feet and the second measuring 18-by-90 feet -- were specially designed so that vegetation could be planted on top of the angled roofs.

CBS4 requested expense records from the city that show the "growing media and plants" for the roofs cost $34,661; the sprinkler system on top of the roofs cost another $5,625; and moisture sensors added another $521. The total cost for the roofs was $93, 176, so "greening" the roofs made up nearly half the cost of the project.

"I think it's frivolous," Brown said.

He said with city workers taking furlough days and millions being cut from the city budget, it's the wrong time to spend money to make roofs green.

"I just don't go for that. I think its green rhetoric," Brown said during an on camera interview at his office. "And we should be more concerned with the green in our wallet than the green on that canopy."

City Council members approved the broader appropriation for the plaza remodel last July, which contained the money for the green canopies. But Brown and one other council member were not present for the vote. Brown was out of town at a city-related conference. He now says if he had been present, he would have made a stink over the extra money for the green canopies.

"I would not have supported $40,000 for a grass roof on a canopy."

The technology is not new but is being embraced by the city of Denver as part of its green initiatives and moves toward "sustainability."

"This particular project helped create jobs," said Mark Guerrero of Denver's Public Works Engineering Division.

Guerrero, an architect and the project manager, acknowledges while the canopies could have been constructed for less money without the green technology, other more expensive options like solar were considered then discarded. He pointed out that the money spent for the green technology went to local companies to pay for roofers, designers and landscapers.

"It's not just a canopy, it's a canopy and planter and water mitigater and urban heat island mitigation thing. It's a multi-function structure that isn't doing just one thing," Guerrero said.

One of the primary benefits is that the plants on the roofs will filter water before it enters Denver's storm drainage system, according to Guerrero. Additional benefits, according to Guerrero, include the aesthetics of incorporating greenery into the mostly concrete plaza, heat mitigation, increasing nearby property values and offering a friendlier environment to the neighborhood.

Guerrero maintains the green roofs will actually extend the life of the canopies and be cost effective in the long run.

"There are enough reasons to do a green roof that made sense," Guerrero said.

The city says a worker will have to climb on the roofs two or three times a year to pull weeds.

-- Written by Brian Maass