C.V. MULLS REQUIRED ENERGY FIXES

Revamps to homes could trigger upgrades to lower greenhouse gas effects

CHULA VISTA

In an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, homeowners may soon have to pay extra money to remodel their homes in Chula Vista.

The City Council will consider a “Mandatory Energy Upgrade” resolution that would require some property owners to pay for energyefficiency upgrades whenever making certain additions or remodels to single-family homes built before 2006.

The upgrades would pay for themselves by lowering utility bills while simultaneously making Chula Vista’s homes more energy-efficient. Additionally, some of the upgrades would improve air quality in some of the older homes, said Cory Downs, the city’s conservation specialist.

The resolution was originally meant to be voted on during the Feb. 26 City Council meeting but was pushed to a future date because the meeting ran late.

According to the staff report of the proposed program, residents are estimated to spend $5 million in mandatory upgrades over the next decade but, over time, those upgrades would pay for themselves because they’d decrease utility bills.

“Based on forecasted projects, staff estimates an average home will save more than $170 in utility costs per year and take 8.3 years to equal the instillation costs,” the staff report states.

The reason behind the proposed mandatory energy upgrade plan is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the city.

The number of projects that would prompt the mandatory energy upgrades is limited to additions that increase the square footage of a property or remodels that change structural elements of the home, Downs said.

For example, a simple kitchen or bathroom remodel wouldn’t trigger the mandatory upgrade. However, remodels that include putting up a wall or moving windows would.

“We really tried to focus in on additions or projects where people are

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making a sizable investment in their property,” he said.

Given the limited number of projects that would trigger a mandatory upgrade, staff hope the program raises awareness about the benefits of energyefficient projects and encourages residents to do their own upgrades voluntarily, Downs added.

There are some exemptions to the mandatory energy upgrades that include a “Project Value Cutoff ” that prevents the costs of the upgrades from exceeding 20 percent of the overall project cost, a “technical or financial infeasibility” exemption for when the upgrades would be infeasible or not cost-effective, and a “home owners association” restriction when an upgrade is beyond the authority of the homeowner because of an HOA covenant. Before coming up with a draft of the program, city officials met with representatives from the Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors.

The association would like Chula Vista to add an income-based exemption so the energy upgrades do not become cost-prohibitive, particularly for people living on a fixed income, according to Mitch Thompson, chairman of the Government Affairs Committee for the association.

“Some seniors who own homes have limited resources,” he said. “Let’s say someone wanted to do some sort of a remodel; this might be prohibitive for a senior.”

The specific energy upgrades include things such as installing attic insulation in buildings with vented attic space, air sealing throughout accessible areas of the building, cool roofs for steep-sloped roofs, energyefficient water heating packages and replacing halogen bulbs with LED lights.

For people who do have the money, the energy upgrades are a reasonable investment because they’d get their money back in eight years’ time. That’s a better return than letting your money sit in a bank, Thompson added.

Speaking as a resident of Chula Vista, Thompson said he would personally prefer to have Chula Vista try an advisory program first instead of a mandatory program, which is what he pushed for as a member of the Otay Water Authority when the state asked municipalities to cut back on water use.

“We decided to educate all of our homeowners and let all of them change their use on their own,” he said. “We had just as much water savings as anybody else.”

gustavo.solis@sduniontribune.com