At our very first meeting we created basic working specifications that really set the parameters for the development of zHome. These specifications took a performance based approach that reflected the impact of buildings as a portion of our overall ecological footprint (much like the Living Building Challenge, which interestingly started at nearly the same time as zHome). For example, 40% of all US CO2 emissions are created by building operations, and so we created a zero carbon specification. Recently, the team re-looked at those specs and was really happy to see that other than becoming a larger project, zHome stayed almost entirely consistent with them.

But all of us in the group came to the table with early experiences that shaped our expectations and vision for the project. Each of us had wanted to push the envelope a lot further than was happening in 2006. Patti and Aaron had been involved in other demonstration projects that they’d wished had gone further and accomplished more. Chuck, through his work on the State Energy Code, was familiar with energy innovations around the world. I had been on sabbatical in 2005 and had visited several zero or near-zero energy projects in Europe, including BedZED and the Hockerton Housing Project, and came away with a firm sense that an actual project on the ground would help redefine the scale of what was possible in the Pacific Northwest.

With the project conceptualized, we then set about making it happen. On one hand, we didn’t want to directly act as developer, since none of the organizations had that as a core competency, but on the other we wanted to have enough skin in the game to maintain control over the design and performance of the project.

We concluded that if we were able offer land at no cost to a developer, that would give us adequate contractual muscle. We then spent a number of months working with Port Blakely Communities, the overall master developer of Issaquah Highlands, to provide the no-cost transfer of a three acre parcel adjacent to the Issaquah Highlands Park and Ride for zHome and a larger affordable housing project (which became the YWCA Family Village, but that’s another story).

As we worked out details of the land transfer, in Summer 2007 we set about finding a developer partner, which we accomplished through an RFQ process. We negotiated a detailed contract, which put into more detail the ecological benchmarks for the project. Through a second RFQ process with the developer, we selected a design team headed by David Vandervort (see Part 3 of this blog for our interview with him).

All the while, we were conscious of the declining market, which had started ironically the month we signed the initial zHome development contract. Early evidence of that happened in March of 2008 when our first builder approached us and said they could no longer proceed with the project. Six months after our official start, and two years from our first meeting, we faced our first of many crises. The very rough ride had only begun.

NEXT INSTALLMENT: zHome rises, falls, and rises again to become the first zero net energy multifamily community in the United States.

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A Zero-Energy Community: Part 6