He worked closely with Baum Development, LLC, the City of Chicago Zoning Committee, and private businesses to ensure the former factory was not converted into residential condominiums. Flores has also been developing the Lathrop Homes LEED Neighborhood Development (ND) project with the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) to create the nation’s first ever LEED certified public housing project. Lathrop Homes, one of the oldest public housing projects in the city, is located in the northeast corner of the 1st Ward, close to the Green Exchange and the Addison Industrial Corridor. Alderman Flores and CHA are working to develop affordable sustainable housing in a transit-oriented development. LEED ND is a sustainability certification in the experimental stages and Lathrop Homes could become the first development in the United States to receive the qualification. Flores instituted the Building Green in the First Ward program in January 2008. This program requires that all residential and commercial developers who receive a zoning change for new construction projects must participate in the Chicago Green Homes Program. Developers are required to achieve the maximum 3-star certification, ensuring that this new construction is an environmentally friendly, energy-efficient and high-quality project. GreenEconomyChicago.com In May 2009, Alderman Flores launched GreenEconomyChicago.com , a joint website and TV program, to bring everyday citizens into policymaking decisions concerning the development of the green economy in Chicago. The website and program—a collaborative effort between Alderman Flores, Mike Bueltmann of Clear Content, and Comcast CN 100—features discussion and information pages that will be moderated by experts from academia, the private sector, and government. Moderators will translate these pages into steps individual citizens can take to promote economic development in Chicago based on sustainable practices and values. GreenEconomyChicago.com seeks to tap into the groundswell of expertise and initiative occurring at the non-governmental level. The site utilizes a Web 2.0 approach to organizing and delivering information, allowing participants to directly provide input and feedback, and enhancing social networks directed at specific policymaking and implementation processes. Transparency Initiatives The TIF Sunshine Ordinance was introduced by Aldermen Flores and Waguespack (32nd Ward) and passed into law on April 22, 2009. The TIF Sunshine Ordinance publishes all documents pertaining to Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district agreements online in a searchable format to be accessed by the public. This important transparency ordinance places information about the City’s expenditure of tax dollars raised in TIF districts that was previously obscured to the public.