SOLARA San Diego
Solara is a 56 apartment-unit, affordable-housing community composed of six two-story residential buildings and a 2,100 square foot Community Center on 2.5 acres in Poway, California. Community HousingWorks, the Owner/Developer, constructed the community on an infill, blighted site that is within the Poway Redevelopment revitalization area. Flanked by a community park and existing market-rate rental housing, SOLARA is located across the street from major retail, and within walking distance of shopping, services, City Hall and library, schools, and on a major transit arterial. A high percentage of residents work in Poway, allowing them to live and work in the same community and not commute. And, with a 425-foot western boundary along Rattlesnake Creek floodway, the development “breathes” along the wide expanse of a natural greenbelt.
Community HousingWorks (CHW), a San Diego non-profit developer/owner, identified the potential site in 2001 and got control of the first two of the four-parcel mixed-use site that Poway Redevelopment Agency assembled over the next several years. CHW designed the apartment community as 55 year, deed-restricted for working families of incomes between 30-60% Area Median. It is a family community, with one-, two- and three-bedroom units (8, 30, 18, respectively), including two two-bedroom units for the developmentally disabled.
SOLARA, completed in March 2007 and 100% occupied, is a pioneering sustainable community, constructed “green” and notable as the first apartment community to be fully powered by the sun, i.e., though tied to the SDGE grid, photovoltaic panels mounted on the roofs and carports supply all electrical demand. The California Energy Commission recognizes this as the first Zero Energy New Home. Community HousingWorks designed SOLARA with all five of the major green elements – besides renewable energy, the development has:
- high energy efficiency in passive design and building envelope (radiant barrier, Low E windows), as well as mechanical and lighting systems and appliances, exceeding Title 24 (2005) by over 15%
- water efficiency including dual flush toilets in all apartments, landscape that includes an organic Meyer lemon grove, a high percentage of California natives with balance naturalized plants, no mown grass, and stormwater that is treated and released to the greenbelt
- use of recycled materials including: fly ash in concrete, glass in a decorative walkway, newspaper in the tackable wall surface within the seven-computer Learning Center, Trex decking, Play structure and soft surface made of recycled tires and bottles, and even office and computer furniture of “cradle to cradle” Haworth
- indoor air quality based on recycled carpet pad and Green Label carpet, linoleum in kitchens and bathrooms, low VOC paint, fans vented to outside, bathroom fans timed with light switches to avoid mold, cross ventilation including windows in many bathrooms, wood cabinets sealed against formaldehyde, and vents sealed during construction; and
- 5) public art integrated into the hardscape that emphasizes sustainability – including more than a dozen etched stepping stones and rocks within the Community Center and along the winding pathways meant both as decorative and to be used for rubbings; “Sun Quilt,” a sculpture triptych composed of recycled materials; a cat-tail sculpture embellishment on the gate connecting the winding floodway walk with the adjacent park, and a kaleidoscope within the Community Center containing recycled materials.
More than just constructing the physical plant green, we comprehensively designed a sustainable community. To keep the physical plant “green”, we designed the management/maintenance guide and training for staff and pre-occupancy briefings for residents. Consistent with our mission of “helping people and neighborhoods move up in the world”, included in the award-winning resident services we provide, project leadership designed an innovative green curriculum with bi-lingual activities and art projects created by the two project artists. To encourage healthy habits, each family is supplied a shopping cart to use in walks to the Farmers Market or other shopping. Job and computer training skills, leadership training, opportunity for scholarships, and financial fitness training and opportunities for first time homebuyer loans make SOLARA a long-term sustainable village, and an example of why affordable housing is smart growth.
Funding for the $16.3 million project comes from Union Bank of California, the City of Poway, the County of San Diego, the California Energy Commission (CEC) and National Equity Fund. The National Equity Fund, Inc. (NEF), a LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation) affiliate, provided nearly $11.5 million in tax-credit equity to the $16 million project, including $207,990 of Business Tax Credits for the project's Photovoltaic Solar Panel System.
Project Architect/ Designer: Rodriguez Associates Architects and Planners
excerpted from the Community Housing Works website: http://www.chworks.org/affordable_housing/solara.asp
and http://www.lisc.org/content/article/detail/5625
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