Energy-efficient Affordable Housing

By Lisa Petrillo
STAFF WRITER June 2, 2007

______________________–

Host note:

I normally would not include a story that is 6 months old, but Solarjoules recently found out about this project. The story did come out before we began this BLOG and since the project is located in our “backyard” I did not want to let it go unnoticed.

I will let you decide for yourself as to weather you think it is a good idea that tax dollars should subsidize projects such as these.

Click on, “Articles on Citizenre” to see how you can rent solar in California and many other states at a cost less than your current electricity bills!

_______________________

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070602/news_1mc2solara.html

POWAY – For Abby Indiongco-Magtoto, what’s not to like about her new apartment where she’s saving both money and the planet?

She saves on rent: Leases run, on average, 40 percent below market at Solara, the city of Poway’s newest affordable-housing complex in the heart of town.

She saves on utility bills: There aren’t any – not for Indiongco-Magtoto or any other Solara tenant.

That’s such a deal that even her 8-year-old son Jacob gets it. As the second-grader explained: “It’s solar-powered, so the lights are free.”

In Solara, Poway has built an environmentally pioneering low-income apartment complex that basically powers itself.

Experts call it the first of its kind in the state, and possibly the nation: a green-built, government-financed, affordable-housing complex that’s virtually climate neutral, constructed with minimum pollution and maximum energy efficiency.

Even the landscaping is edible; Solara’s grounds include sage and rosemary and lemon trees.

“It’s really an innovative project. It serves as a living, breathing program to serve as a model,” said Adam Gottlieb of the California Energy Commission. “Not only are they building smart and fighting climate change, but they are reducing greenhouse gases for the rest of us.”

The energy commission subsidized the $18.5 million Solara complex to help create a working example for developers in the public and private sectors on how to build cheap and green.

What Krissy Toft of Poway’s Redevelopment Agency likes about the 56-unit Solara, which gets its official ribbon-cutting Tuesday, is that they’ve created a lasting resource that writes the book on environmental public policy.

“We’re setting the bar. I don’t see us stopping this and going in another direction after what we’d gained,” Toft said.

She expects the city of 50,000 residents to follow the green wave in future public housing projects, six of which are in the pipeline.

What Jacob Magtoto, who lives in Solara, likes is that when he needed a Jedi light saber to join the “Star Wars” battles with his new friends in their new complex, he and his mother could simply walk to the store to buy one.

“You have wiggle room in your budget here,” said Indiongco-Magtoto, membership services director for the local chamber of commerce.

Her eyes gleam with the possibilities imagined with what she’ll be saving from not paying an estimated $1,200 per year in utilities and on gas. Because of Solara’s central location, she and her son will be able to walk to stores, movies, the market, the pool, the parks and the library.

During a recent after-school light-saber duel on Solara’s colorful grounds, Jacob and his new neighbor, Jeffrey Lopez, 8, paused to talk about what makes their place special. “My house is really cool, because the sun does all the work,” Jeffrey said.

Their youthful grasp of the politics of ecology drew proud smiles from Mary Jane Jagodzinski and Anne Wilson of Community Housing Works.

Jagodzinski and Wilson led the team for the San Diego-based nonprofit that developed this complex and now manage it, complete with educational orientation programs for all new residents, children included, about the whys and hows of sustainable building.

“We want them to know what makes them special so they can spread those lessons to others,” Jagodzinski said.

It wasn’t easy being green.

When planning began on the Solara project five years ago on 2½ acres on Community Road near Poway Road, the only direction from city officials was to make it save money through energy efficiency. But also do it without making the place look like a science experiment.

“We found there was nothing out there like this. There was no road map, no book. We were going to have to figure it out ourselves,” said Wilson, director of housing and real estate development.

Only 2 percent of affordable-housing developers integrate renewable energy features into their projects, according to the Energy Commission. Yet utility bills can be the crushing blow for some people living on the edge financially.

Those involved with developing Solara say they wanted to achieve the important balance of providing solidly built low-cost housing to help their tenants, while at the same time making that housing ecologically friendly.

While Community Housing owns and manages 25 affordable-housing complexes countywide where they strive to save energy costs, Wilson said achieving climate neutrality was beyond its expertise. It hired as consultants Global Green USA, a Santa Monica-based nonprofit that combats global warming and nuclear proliferation.

Global Green spokesman Ted Bardacke said the organization helped find ways to make Poway’s complex financially feasible, while still using the best materials and technologies available. It helped Community Housing solve problems such as where to find alternative air conditioners that don’t run on ozone-depleting Freon, yet don’t cost so much that they escalate the cost-efficiency of an affordable-housing project.

After the success with Solara, Bardacke said he’s seeing its design become the new wave in public housing projects. His organization has been tapped to assist with several similar fully green projects in California and nationally.

The complex is first and foremost a haven for low-to moderate-income families. There’s a staggering demand for affordable housing in high-rent San Diego County, where some 13 percent of workers earn less than $20,000 per year, while the median home price tops $550,000. There are 800 families on Solara’s waiting list.

Residents must meet income requirements, based on formulas factoring in median-area incomes and housing costs. A typical family of four earning less than $42,000 per year would qualify. Rent runs from $388 to $1,075 per month in the complex of standard-sized apartments, with one-, two-and three-bedroom units that feature built-in-shelves and extra closets.

The green is what’s unseen.

The shade structures for the carports hold the solar panels that convert the sun’s rays into electricity. Also, the architectural firm Rodriguez Associates shifted the buildings to take advantage of natural breezes and designed window openings to offer cooling cross-ventilation.

Double-paned windows restrict temperature loss. Roofs use heat-reflecting materials; attics and walls are filled with nontoxic, formaldehyde-free insulation. There are energy-saving, tankless water heaters and dual-flush toilets.

Threaded through the complex is eye-catching public art, all using recycled materials. In the community center, which features a computer lab where after-school tutoring programs will be held, there’s a large kaleidoscope filled with glittering bits of broken glass that children can turn like a bicycle wheel.

Filed under: Green Energy Forum

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!

Possibly related posts