Description:
Village Pointe is a low-income housing community in Lancaster, California, with a total of 210 units that range from one-bedrooms to four-bedrooms. It provides various amenities for the residents, including tennis and basketball courts and playground.
Community Preservation Partners (CPP), a WNC company focused on development and preservation of affordable housing, secured Partner Energy’s services prior to the moderate rehab construction began on the property in order to provide Enterprise Green Communities Certification support.
Enterprise Community Partners is a national nonprofit that focuses on increasing the supply of affordable housing. It launched the Enterprise Green Communities in 2004 as a “national green building program created with and for the affordable housing sector,” and focuses on “residents’ health and well-being.”
A moderate rehab projected requires a minimum of 30 points to be certified according to the 2015 EGC checklist. In the new EGC 2020 program, moderate rehabs will need 35 optional points to be certified on top of additional mandatory requirements.
The scope of work for EGC certification began during pre-construction, where Partner Energy identified all the materials and systems that are needed for EGC compliance. During the design stage, Partner Energy provided energy modeling for each unique unit type to evaluate various equipment to meet Enterprise item 5.1C requirements. This was followed by a thorough review of the design plans, during which Partner Energy provided recommendations to meet the EGC criteria. During construction, Partner Energy performed on-site verifications, including inspection of insultation installation and air sealing quality.
Examples of recommendations that were implemented in order to improve the property and meet the EGC criteria:
- Overall, the property has an improved energy efficiency score with an EDR below 75.
- Added low flow, water conserving fixtures for toilets, showerhead, lavatory faucets and kitchen faucets.
- Installed new ENERGY STAR® rated refrigerators and dishwashers, which contributed to annual cost and energy savings.
- Installed all new lighting with high efficacy/LED, which contributed to annual cost and energy savings. Exterior lighting is dark sky friendly which reduces light pollution.
- The storage gas DHW heaters were replaced with high efficiency water heaters.
- Local mechanical exhausts were installed in bathrooms and kitchens for improved ventilation.
- Utility benchmarking is now in progress for this building.
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- “The project commits to collecting and monitoring project energy and water performance data for 100% of owner-paid utilities and 15% of tenant-paid utilities for at least 5 years. This data will be maintained in a manner that allows staff to easily access and monitor it, enabling them to make informed operations and capital planning decisions. The project team will allow Enterprise access to this data through Portfolio Manager.”
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- Two greywater systems to conserve water and reduce utility bills.
The project successfully obtained 44 points and was awarded the Enterprise Green Communities Certification in October 2021.
