Golden Valley pair get OK for 'green' siding

As of last month, Michael Rice had pretty much given up his dream of covering his unusual Golden Valley home in environmentally friendly but unconventional silver corrugated steel.

He had seen a proposed city ordinance that would have limited sheet metal on buildings to 25 percent of the exterior. Assuming it would pass the City Council, he went to a briefing on the issue anyway, just in case questions came up.

Then things took a turn.

"The mayor, bless her heart, just stood up and talked about siding," Rice said. "She said 25 percent is so arbitrary ... that if this was good material with a warranty, we shouldn't be legislating aesthetics. She said we should bring Golden Valley into the 21st century.

"I was completely surprised."

This week the Golden Valley City Council approved a new ordinance that allows finished metal siding on buildings. The ordinance will be refined, but this week's vote allows Rice and his wife, Katja Linfield, to move forward with plans to replace damaged vinyl siding on their home with a material they consider to be more durable, attractive and environmentally friendly.

They first proposed using corrugated metal last year for their soaring, three-story house, designed by architect Paul Madson as his residence in 1983. The Georgia Avenue house's original redwood siding had been damaged by woodpeckers and replaced with vinyl. After Rice and Linfield bought the house in 2002, hail storms cracked the siding and dented the house's aluminum wrap.

Rice did his research and settled on a high-end corrugated steel called Galvalume. It resembles the rippled metal seen on corn bins and farm buildings, but has a finish that prevents rust. Made of one-third recycled steel, it is dent-resistant and can be completely recycled.

But when Rice contacted the city, he discovered that a 1988 ordinance banned the use of sheet metal on buildings. The ordinance had largely been ignored until Rice made his application; city officials admitted that a few homes and some large commercial buildings already were partially clad in metal.

City planner Joe Hogeboom said Golden Valley checked with surrounding cities before drawing up the proposed ordinance that would have limited metal siding to 25 percent of a structure's exterior. Most City Council members wanted to go further than that. Hogeboom said the 1988 rule was outdated.

"Building materials have changed, and architectural styles have changed, too," he said. "We wanted to do more thorough research on types of materials that are out there, on what's corrosive, what life spans are. But in the meantime we had somebody who wanted to put metal on his house, and this didn't help them.

"So we revised the ordinance to allow finished sheet metal siding to allow this person to move forward, and we'll look further at the issue."

"We always talk about how to make our ordinances more green and to get more green buildings," she said. "For this particular homeowner, it was his main concern. This uses recycled materials, and once it's taken off the house it can be recycled again."

Of the council's decision, Rice said: "I think they're pretty smart. They're not trying to control the aesthetic; they're trying to control the quality of the material."

Last year, he did a computer mock-up of what his house would look like covered in corrugated metal. Neighbors signed a petition of support. The Galvalume finish should cut the metal's reflectivity, giving it a matte appearance.

Rice said he and his wife will talk to builders and figure out whether to cover the entire building in steel or cover parts with cement board to highlight elements of the house. He wants to get the job done as soon as possible, but that will likely be six to eight weeks from now because his street was just torn up to put in a new storm sewer, water mains, pavement and curbs.

The couple felt so strongly about not using vinyl siding that they had talked of moving.