Brittle Power- PARTS 1-3 (+Notes) - Natural Capitalism Solutions

Chapter Seventeen: Achieving Resilience 325• mandating energy-efficient development through subdivision or otherordinances; and•providing a procedure for protecting solar access for existing buildings andfor new buildings in developed areas.Among California cities and counties surveyed in 1981, energy-saving land usepolicies were already in place in twenty-two percent and pending in twenty-eightpercent; solar access in new subdivisions was protected in twenty-four percentand pending in twenty-eight percent; and solar orientation was ensured by subdivisionlayout policies in thirty-three percent and about to be in a further twentypercent. 103 Some jurisdictions are even more advanced: New Mexico, forexample, is the first state to have protected solar access by state law.Many older types of local ordinances restrict or forbid—often unintentionally—energy-efficientbuilding designs and passive solar measures. Davis,California, for example, had to change its ordinances to allow clotheslines andthe most flexible design of overhangs for summer shading. Davis and someother communities permit narrower streets to reduce the energy needed formaterials and construction; encourage bicycling and the planting of trees toreduce summer overheating; and facilitate earth-sheltered buildings. 104Richmond, British Columbia adopted a zoning bylaw in 1980 which allowsbuilders of multi-family developments to increase housing densities by ten to fifteenpercent if a certain fraction of the buildings’ energy is supplied renewably. 105Pitkin County, Colorado has policies to encourage proper building orientation,to protect solar access, and to make some local automobile traffic unnecessary. 106Some communities judge alternative development proposals competitivelyaccording to their energy efficiency or use of renewables, and allow a densitybonus of up to one-fourth for renewable energy supply. 107 Nearly four-fifths ofCalifornia communities are implementing bicycle circulation systems; threefifths,dial-a-ride systems and synchronized traffic signals. 108 Mixed zoning, sothat people can walk to shopping districts and jobs or can raise food around orbetween houses or other buildings, is also a popular way to reduce transportationneeds. And longer-term prevention of unthinking sprawl can reduce a community’senergy needs by as much as one-half. 109Regulation Mandatory action, such as a retrofit ordinance, is a community’strump card. Certainly, removal of institutional barriers to voluntary actionand provision of ample information, capital, and choice of services can andshould come first. But some communities, after careful economic assessments,have chosen also to use their innate powers to protect public health, as theydo in present building and zoning regulations, to require certain efficiency orrenewable energy actions. Such regulatory actions can arouse mixed reactions