Paul Mack waters the tomato plants in front of his Solar Village condo. He’s happy to pay only $35 a month for gas and electricity in his 1,195-square-foot home. Photo by Mark Kostovvy

Formaldehyde-free particleboard and solid-wood fronts make Solar Village’s cabinets a nontoxic alternative to standard cabinetry. Photo by Mark Kostovvy

Paul Roberts, owner of Two Dog Diner, got so inspired by the environmental ethic of Solar Village residents that he now recycles his diner’s cooking oil. Photo by Mark Kostovvy

solar-savvy village

An energy-efficient Longmont development delights homeowners with low utility bills and healthier living.

Text by Felicia Russell
Photos by Mark Kostovny

Paul Mack lived in a quaint 1,200-square-foot bungalow right beside Boulder Creek. Enviable? Yes—until the heating bill arrived. Mack paid $260 a month to heat his cozy cottage. These days his gas and electric bills total just over $35 a month, thanks to the sun and his new digs at Longmont’s Solar Village.

Most of Mack’s heat now comes from the great furnace in the sky. On cold winter days, sunlight streams through his south-facing windows, where concrete floors soak it up by day and radiate heat into the room at night, like a warm rock at dusk.

Mack’s 1,195-square-foot condo in Prospect New Town is one of 16 passive-solar units above four retail spaces. Designed to take advantage of the sun, Solar Village also has 21 active solar roof panels that heat water for domestic use and power radiant floors. Additionally, photovoltaic panels provide electricity for the elevator and outdoor lights, and double as awnings over south-facing windows.

“In this project we tried to use proven technologies that result in major savings, but keep it all within budget so the homes aren’t that much more expensive than others in the neighborhood,” says Mark Kostovny, co-founder of Solar Village LLC, the Boulder-based design/build firm that did the Longmont project and is planning another mixed-use solar community in Fort Collins, as well as a line of turnkey solar homes nationwide.

Seven condos are still available in the Prospect development, including one through Longmont’s affordable housing program. The market-priced condos range from $245,000 to $335,000—or an average of $244 per square foot. Other condos, town homes and live-work residences advertised for sale on Prospect’s website average $195 per square foot.

Bright Benefits

When Shelley Saxton downsized from her 97-year-old home in old-town Longmont to a compact one-bedroom condo in Solar Village, she knew she’d enjoy not mowing anymore. But what surprised her most was the marked improvement in her allergies. “I honestly feel a hundred percent better living here than I have anywhere else,” she says.
Like many people, Saxton suffered from allergies caused by things in her home. In the typical house, people are exposed to formaldehyde from particleboard in cabinetry and walls; volatile organic compounds in paints, varnishes and carpeting; and molds, spores and pet dander stirred up by forced-air heating and cooling systems. Solar Village uses only materials that don’t outgas or release harmful chemicals into the home.

One of the challenges of building Solar Village was communicating that philosophy to everyone involved in the project, from the designer to the engineer to the person screwing in light bulbs. On the job site, Kostovny found himself checking to be sure light bulbs were halogen or compact fluorescents and that low-emissivity windows made it to the west side of the building, while clear-glazed windows made it to the south side. “This is what’s hard,” he says. “These guys are so used to doing things the same old way. You have to educate them to switch.”

But that doesn’t mean the world isn’t willing to change. Kostovny says green developments are generating excitement worldwide, from New Jersey to Japan. “We had investors banging on our door. People want to do the right thing now. They’re tired of everyday investments. And we wanted to do something that we thought was going to spur interest in a new direction.”

Solar Village certainly spurred interest among business owners. Loretta Richter and her husband bought space for their Solar Yoga studio nine months before the development broke ground. “We knew we wanted a yoga studio in Longmont, and this is definitely the coolest place in Longmont,” Richter says. However, there wasn’t enough roof space to provide solar heat or electricity to any of the commercial spaces.

Aside from that drawback, business owners say the community is much more cohesive than those in other commercial districts. “The biggest difference is with it being live-work. You really get to know the people living here,” says Kay Aitchison of Sugar’s Ice Cream, another Solar Village business. And of course, the development is full of environmentally active citizens. Before the community had recycling service, residents organized a cardboard collection, prompting Paul Roberts, owner of Solar Village’s Two Dog Diner, to recycle cooking oil. Now a biodiesel company turns his used oil into fuel.

It seems the only downside to life in this passive-solar community is a relatively minor one. Instead of simply adjusting a thermostat, homeowners must take a few extra minutes to open or close blinds and windows. “On a colder day you want the sun inside. On a warmer day you block the sun,” Mack explains. “To me, it’s like wearing hats and sunglasses in summer and sweaters and pullovers in winter. It’s part of your responsibility to participate and manage things…and it just takes a couple minutes a day.”

Felicia Russell is assistant editor of Boulder County Home & Garden Magazine. Her dining table is littered with plans for a passive-solar home that she and her husband hope to build in a few years.

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