Reimagining Affordable Mixed-Use Development in a Carbon-Constrained Future
ConSol
Recipient
Sacramento, CA
Recipient Location
6th
Senate District
7th
Assembly District
$966,271
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
The project kicked off in June 2022 and the team immediately began holding detailed project meetings. The design consists of two all-electric, energy efficient, mid-rise buildings (three and four floors each), with a total of 123 affordable housing family units. The team worked with their community team partners - University of Davis Center for Regional Change and California Coalition Rural Housing - to garner input on a baseline for the level of understanding that Yolo County residents have for potential energy efficiency and other green features that were considered in the planning and design work. Community input was received from nearby residents through surveys, interviews and planned focus groups.
In 2023, the team held a technical advisory committee meeting in January to discuss and receive feedback on the concept design preview, technology suite partners and integration overview, load profile generator modeling tool, and draft performance metrics. Additionally, the team began energy modeling and developed a Load Profile Generator Modeling Tool. However, the team encountered challenges with the software because the most recent CBECC 2022 update forces all multi-family housing modeling to be done in the commercial version. This required the team to build new models in a modeling platform that uses a wholly different simulation engine. ConSol is adapting by pursuing usage of the EnergyPro software to accurately model the two planned multifamily buildings. Another challenge is the CPUC’s recent Net Energy Metering (NEM) 3.0 decisions that will have direct and as-yet unknown impact on the energy economics of the community. This topic will continue to be monitored and evaluated during this design phase.
The Issue
This project is a part of Woodland’s plan to increase affordable housing stock and meet the housing needs of low-income residents. In Yolo County, 9,756 low-income renter households do not have access to an affordable home. Further, 80% of Extremely Low Income (ELI) households are paying more than half of their income on housing costs compared to just 1% of moderate-income households. Asking rents for multifamily rental homes have increased by 4.3% between 2018 and 2019 which does not include further dramatic increases seen during the COVID19 pandemic. State funding for the County decreased 26% and federal funding decreased 52% for housing production and preservation from FY 2008-09 to FY 2018-19. Jurisdictions in Yolo County are behind in meeting their fifth cycle Regional Housing Needs Assessment Allocation (RHNA) production goals for all income groups. This project is consistent with the City’s identified needs for affordable housing at a location already designated for this type of use. Furthermore, this project not only addresses the dearth of affordable housing in Woodland but addresses this with a break-through, scalable approach incorporating above-code energy efficiency, multiple sources of onsite clean energy generation including local biomass, shared electric vehicle mobility with fast charging, and multiple levels of energy resilience incorporating all energy assets into a leading-edge microgrid design.
Project Innovation
The project recipient will develop an all electric, mixed-use, one hundred percent affordable housing development in the City of Woodland. The project will incorporate innovative energy efficiency measures, clean energy technologies, and provide shared electric transportation to create an environmentally-friendly neighborhood for residents. The development will be located within the planned Woodland Research & Technology Park (WRTP) community and will feature access to public transit as well as surrounding retail shops, parks, pedestrian walkways, bikeways, and local universities. Finally, residents of the development will have access to local employment training and workforce development opportunities.
Project Benefits
This community will utilize state-of-the art clean energy and energy efficient technologies that will enhance quality of life while also lowering resident utility costs. A collaborative effort among the project proponents has been established to explore local employment training and workforce development opportunities.
Affordability
The project supports developers in making more informed choices, lowering the possibility of unexpected costs during construction. Additionally, if built-out it could lower costs with energy efficiency measures, onsite renewable energy and storage technologies that will help offset the building owner and tenant energy bills.
Reliability
The project will help increase greater electricity reliability by providing reductions in daily peak demand through on-site renewable energy coupled with energy storage. Additionally, microgrid control technologies will provide power for Tier 1 critical loads during power shutoff events.
Equity
This all-electric, mixed-use affordable housing development concept is designed to be 100 percent affordable to qualified low-income renters in a new development in Woodland. Furthermore, the development will offer walking distance to shopping, schools, and jobs, as well as public transportation and shared-electronic vehicles.
Key Project Members
Kodie Baig
Subrecipients
Nuvve Holding Corp.
Envoy Technologies, Inc.
Swell Energy Inc.
Skysource
UC Davis Center for Regional Change
California Coalition for Rural Housing
The Hodgson Company
Bardis & Miry Development, LLC
BSB Design, Inc.
Community Energy Labs, Inc.
William Allen
Meysam Tabibzadeh
Match Partners
ConSol
Community Energy Labs, Inc.
William Allen
Meysam Tabibzadeh
