There goes the [‘fossil-fuel] neighborhood

Geos' live-work homes with native landscaping and rain gardens.

While net zero energy homes are a growing segment of the green building market, entire net zero neighborhoods are not yet the norm. One Colorado developer is attempting to help push them in that direction.

Developer Norbert Klebl designed Geos, a master-planned community halfway between Denver and Boulder, Colo., to be a net zero energy, fossil-fuel free neighborhood affordable to the average homebuyer.

Using New Urbanism principles Klebl worked with Michael Tavel Architects and David Kahn Studio to design Geos, which through energy efficiency, renewables and orientation, should be able to use only as much energy as it generates over a year.

Geos includes 240 homes ranging in size from 1,000 square feet to 2,100 square feet, as well as 15 to 30 live-work spaces for service-based businesses. (A relatively high ratio of Geos homeowners are expected to work from home, Klebl says.) A community food garden and fruit trees to create what he calls “an edible landscape,” are also part of the plans, along with rainwater collection and filtration systems designed to reduce the community’s impact on local water tables. 

The community’s planned layout takes full advantage of passive solar heating and ground-source heat in the area. The homes’ designs also have very tight envelopes thanks to the use of structural insulated panels and extremely efficient fiberglass-frame windows manufactured locally by Serious Windows (pdf). These measures mean HVAC loads are expected to be 75 percent to 80 percent below that of average Colorado homes, according to Kelbl. Remaining energy needs should be met by 5-kilowatt solar panels on each house’s roof.

Klebl says all of the Geos houses will easily attain Platinum ratings from the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. He also says he thinks the entire community—which is billed as a “fossil-fuel free community”—could reach the Gold level of USGBC’s forthcoming Neighborhood Development certification.

The homes are expected to sell for about $230 per square foot, which is a premium of about $10 per square foot for comparable homes in the area, Klebl says. Any premium on a home’s final price because of energy efficiency, renewable energy or other sustainability measures has to be offset by savings on utility bills thanks to lower demand and utility rebates for home solar generation, according to Klebl.

Despite a turbulent economy, Klebl plans to break ground on the $90 million Geos project when financing for utility infrastructure in the neighborhood, including water, electricity and streets is finalized. He says the recession made getting that financing from banks more difficult, but since he owns the land with only “a very small lien” and has earnest money for 18 of the homes already, he expects financing to come through by the fourth quarter of 2009. Klebl plans to start home construction in the first quarter of 2010 and to be complete by 2014, at the same time that a new commuter train line to Denver that will pass within a mile of the site will likely be completed.