SUSTAINABILITY FINANCING DISTRICT

By Michael Allen

A Proposal to Help Santa Rosa Residents and Protect our Environment.

A Sustainability Financing District is an innovative yet simple tool to reduce energy in our City's homes and businesses. By implementing this policy, Santa Rosa could lead the way in slashing our community's day-to-day dependence on fossil fuels - while saving residents money and stimulating the local economy at the same time.

HOW IT WORKS

A Sustainability Financing District would enable the City to pay the upfront costs of solar photovoltaic (PV), solar water heating and energy efficiency measures in the City's homes and businesses. The City would shoulder these costs through secure loans and bonds, with lower interest rates than those commercially available to individual property owners. Under this model, property owners would pay the costs of the improvements over a 20-year period, with low interest payments and a small fee to cover the City's administrative costs. These payments would appear as an assessment on property tax bills - levied only on property owners who utilized the Sustainability Financing District to incorporate solar or energy efficiency measures into their home or business.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPERATIVE

When the City of Santa Rosa pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 25% below 1990 levels by the year 2015, they took on a target that was ambitious but necessary. Based on findings from the international scientific community, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions need to be at least this significant in order to avoid irreversible climactic, economic, and social consequences

Because energy and natural gas usage in existing buildings is responsible for approximately 40% of CO2 emissions, the City cannot reach its climate protection goals without substantially reducing the carbon footprint of our existing building stock.

CITYWIDE BENEFITS

• Leveraging City financing to pay upfront costs of sustainability improvements removes an enormous obstacle to many businesses and homeowners, who face steep price tags for technologies such as solar PV.

• Substantial savings on natural gas and electricity bills would offset the added assessment. This means that anyone who can afford to pay his or her utility bill could take advantage of this tool.

• Citywide financing gives property owners access to lower interest rates than might be available to them through a traditional line of equity or mortgage refinancing.

• This model allows any outstanding assessment to be transferred when a property changes hands, meaning that costs and benefits are spread fairly between buyer and seller.

• http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/Mayor/GHG/solar.htm
• http://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/20080901/BUSINESSJOURNAL/808280219/1206/BUSINESS0110