Aspen considers the 2030 Challenge
ASPEN, Colo. -- City officials in Aspen are being urged to adopt building regulations that square up with the 2030 Challenge of making new buildings carbon neutral.
If embraced, the challenge will require that buildings constructed next year become 50 percent more energy-efficient than the average existing house in Aspen, with the goal that houses will become increasingly efficient in future years, so that houses built in 2030 are carbon neutral.
Such buildings must be super-insulated, to prevent energy loss, but with some means of generating or retaining energy. Passive solar is perhaps the easiest way for a building to generate its own energy, but photo-voltaic collectors, geoexchange loop systems, and even microhydro systems can also generate heat, electricity, or both.
The challenge was posted in 2006 by Santa Fe-based architect Edward Mazria. Mazria argues that buildings consume 50 percent of all energy used in the United States. As such, if the nation hopes to dampen its greenhouse gas emissions, it must start constructing buildings with more intelligence.
In Aspen, according to the Aspen Times, city officials say that building codes already require commercial buildings be 30 percent more efficient than the average homes. If adopted, the 2030 Challenge will require efficiency of 50 percent more.
The 2030 Challenge program suggests that commercial buildings and large residential complexes hand over utility bills each month for five years to prove they are as efficient as promised.
Aspen may consider photovoltaic cells
ASPEN, Colo. -- As Aspen continues to dampen the total impact of its often-empty mansions, one new suggestion is that owners be encouraged to install photovoltaic systems.
Currently, many owners of large homes with outdoor pools, hot tubs, and driveway melting systems have installed solar hot water systems. Such systems work efficiently, but the drawback is that they are of little use when the houses are vacant, as the hot water cannot be exported.
Photovoltaic systems, in contrast, could continue to produce electricity for the broader public even when the homes are vacant, explains The Aspen Times. The newspaper reports that city building officials are suggesting a carrot program to complement the current bag of sticks, but city officials have made no decision.
Contractors shift to remodeling projects
TRUCKEE, Calif. --- The real estate market has slowed in the Truckee and Lake Tahoe area. There's more remodeling work and less new construction, says Mark Tanner, a building contractor. "Last year it was like 90 percent new and 10 percent remodel," he told the Sierra Sun. "This year it's more like 50-50."
Real estate boom over in Jackson Hole
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. -- The state of the real estate market in Jackson Hole has been in dispute in recent weeks. A study by a California-based firm found that the median home price in Teton County had dropped 9 percent in the last year. But David Viehman, a local appraiser and real estate agent who has studied the market for number of years, says the Californians crunched the numbers in ways that don't necessarily make sense.
As Viehman crunches the numbers, prices for single-family homes have actually increased in the last year by 2 percent. However, he discounts condos, townhouses and fractional ownerships -- which may have been included in the tabulation of a 9 percent decline.
What clearly is happening, he says, is that locals continue to escalate their prices as if a boom were still occurring. As a consequence, lots of properties are on the market.
"Locals can't get over the fact that their property is not worth more than it was last year," Viehman told the Jackson Hole News&Guide. "They won't come off their price."
What has happened, several sources tell the newspaper, is that the real estate market is correcting itself after several years of extreme heating. As well, while there are still mortgages available for "strong" borrowers, no national companies are loaning for more than $700,000. Also, while vacationers to Jackson Hole might have been inclined to buy vacation real estate at other times, the national economic uncertainty at this time is keeping them in a less committed state.
Buses crowding, fares on the rise
TELLURIDE, Colo. -- Commuter buses are getting more crowded across ski country, and they're also getting more expensive. Newspapers in Jackson Hole, Aspen and Telluride have all carried news in recent weeks of contemplated or approved increases in passenger fares to compensate for increased fuel costs. The bus linking Telluride and one of its bedroom communities, Norwood, will see a 100 percent increase in fare price. That leaves it at just $2 a ride, reports The Telluride Watch. Still, that's a good deal, as the drive is about a half-hour long.
Vail takes aim at personal cars
VAIL, Colo. -- Parking rates this winter will go up in Vail's two large public parking garages. A full day of parking previously was $20. This year it will be $25. The hike is being levied by Vail officials because they want to shift more use to mass transit. Also, they hope to reduce the amount of overflow when the parking garages are filled, which last year resulted in cars being parked along the adjacent frontage road 48 times. While some of the cars are from Denver, a substantial portion of the cars are from locals in Vail and the Eagle Valley.
Cabins now hung on new Whistler gondola
WHISTLER, B.C. -- Whistler's new peak-to-peak gondola now has the first 12 cabins hanging into thin air. The gondola will offer the world's greatest length of free-span cable, 3.02 kilometers, or slightly less than 2.5 miles.
Eventually the gondola will have 28 cabins, and each will hold 28 people. Two of the cabins will have glass-bottomed areas, for those who want to stare into the abyss below. At its highest point, the gondola will be 436 meters above the ground, or 1,400 feet.
As well, the gondola cars will move at a fast clip, 7.5 meters (24 feet) per second.
Intrawest, the ski area operator, hopes that the gondola will separate Whistler from other mountain resorts, reports Pique Newsmagazine.
"I think what we have created here is a tourism icon for both Canada and British Columbia and something that will differentiate Whistler from our competition around the world," Dave Brownlie, the chief operating office at Whistler-Blackcomb
The gondola, Brownlie added, will be a "must-do, must-see experience."
City officials hope that the gondola will help fill beds. Currently, the year-round occupancy average at Whistler is 55 percent. Bob Lorriman, a municipal councilor, said that the hope is that the gondola will get significant television exposure during the 2010 Winter Olympics. That, he said, should allow Whistler to "leverage that experience for the next many years."
