Brookfield’s new “Eco-Savvy” product line of single family detached homes is receiving very positive reviews from new home shoppers. The information trailer for Rockrose opened on January 9th. Over 550 inquisitive parties have signed up on the new neighborhood’s Interest List. And, over 35 prospective purchasers have begun the loan qualification process!

Are you environmentally tuned in? Are you focused on eco-friendly homes, energy efficient homes, and sustainable homes? Are you looking for environmentally friendly homes, energy saving homes, and green house designs? Then you may be “Eco-Savvy”! If you want all these things in your new home, and you want your home in a great school district, a coastal city and a new master planned community, then you may be “Eco-Savvy”! If you want all these benefits and you want them at a great value, the you are “Eco-Savvy”!

“Eco-Savvy” means sustainable and smart! “Eco-Savvy” means energy conscious, water conscious, air quality conscious, habitat conscious, renewable resource conscious and smart! Every home in the Rockrose neighborhood will be a minimum of 35% more energy efficient than required by the current California’s Energy Efficiency Standards for Residential Construction (Title 24). No other builder in San Diego is offering this level of energy efficiency in its standard construction homes! That’s right “NO OTHER BUILDER IN SAN DIEGO IS OFFERING A STANDARD CONSTRUCTION HOME AT 35% MORE EFFICIENT THAN REQUIRED BY TITLE 24!” That is why “Eco-Savvy” in smart!

In Rockrose you will find … water efficient fixtures, low VOC paints, stains and adhesives for air quality, National Wildlife Federation certified habitat landscaping, sustainable forest certified lumber, xeriscape front yard landscaping, construction waste reduction programs, in-home recycling centers, and the list continues to grow … that is “Eco-Savvy” smart!

Have you been by to visit Rockrose? What’s holding you up? You can find us on Glen Avenue in Carlsbad. Take the I-5 to Cannon Road exit, go east. As you cross El Camino Real, you can see us ahead on the left. Turn left on Hilltop Street and go around the traffic circle to the Brookfield Information Center for Rockrose. Stop in and see Julie or Loretta, they will be happy to show you how “Eco-Savvy” means a smart buying decision.

The new homes at Rockrose will range from a single story home with 2,116 sf to a two story home with 3,167 sf. In all, four different floor plans will be offered, with multiple architectural elevations and color palates.

The Eco-Savvy design and construction techniques will be previewed this weekend as well. You will learn more about our plans for conserving water, conserving energy, reducing construction waste, drought tolerant landscaping and irrigation systems, improved internal air quality and other environmentally sensitive design and construction approaches being offered in these eco friendly new homes.

The Foothills community is conveniently located east of El Camino Real, along Cannon Road, in Carlsbad, California. The Foothills community is also situated on a southerly facing, gently sloping, hill side. This provides homes sites with view opportunities, good access to warm sunlight and cool ocean breezes. The recreation center at The Foothills will offer resort level amenities and a great gathering places for new friends and neighbors.

The Carlsbad Unified School District will provide educational facilities for the children of The Foothills and is planning a new high school, along Cannon Road, just east of College Avenue. The new high school is scheduled to open in the fall of 2013.

Pocket parks, a recreational vehicle storage facility and a future commercial office building will also be part of The Foothills master plan. A city neighborhood park has been designed and graded just west of The Foothills, along El Camino Real, and will be developed in the future by the City of Carlsbad.

Stop by our Sales Information Center and learn more about The Foothills and our new neighborhood, Rockrose. Find out what it means to be Eco-Savvy and how you can customize your new home to fit your lifestyle while providing for fewer impacts to our environment.

See you on Saturday!

Great questions! And, we have great answers!

Rockrose, a new community brought to you by Brookfield is Eco-Savvy. Rockrose is a Carlsbad community in the new master plan of The Foothills. Rockrose takes green building, sustainable building and environmentally friendly building to a new level of awareness and implementation.

Today’s “green conscious” consumers are looking to reduce their personal and family impact on the earth’s health and well being. They are looking for environmentally friendly alternatives for every aspect of their lives. Eco-Savvy understands this desire and works with multiple aspects of new home construction and new community living to incorporate these goals into environmentally friendly living.

The recreation center of The Foothills master plan includes solar water heating and LED lighting to reduce the need for natural gas and electricity. You still get the same resort quality facilities, you just get them in a more Eco-Savvy delivery.

Rockrose will include many new Eco-Savvy features, starting with a whole house design system focused on increasing energy efficiency by 35% or more than current Title 24 requirements. Title 24 is the California state law that governs home design and energy efficiency in construction. California has one of the strictest energy efficiency standards in the United States, and every Eco-Savvy Rockrose home will exceed the minimum standards for energy efficiency by at least 35% (according to the current Title 24)!

Rockrose will also bring you other Eco-Savvy features, like water conservation measures and environmentally friendly building material selections. Many of these features will be standard in every Rockrose home. And, then for those “green conscious” buyers that desire to go even further …. well, we have some more surprises in store for you.

Visit our web site for more information on Rockrose and The Foothills. Then check back here regularly as we unveil more of the Eco-Savvy features and options you can find in this new home community.

Brookfield Homes has always prided itself on the quality of our home construction. We are known for our efforts to design and build quality homes. We view the Eco-Savvy homes by Brookfield to be that “next extension” of our quality construction program. Quality, value, design and now Eco-Savvy, Brookfield Homes continues to lead the way in new home and community construction.

The Legislature passed a five bill package of new laws. Each of these new laws is focused on a specific area of water regulation. They are:

SBx7-1 – A comprehensive new governance structure that will oversee nearly all activities, agencies and regulations within the “Bay-Delta Region”. This bill deals with land use, water rights, environmental and conveyance issues. This bill is the heart of the legislation.

SBx7-2 – A comprehensive bond bill, asking the voters of California to approve $11.14 billion of state general obligation bonds to finance a wide variety of improvements, enhancements, storage, conveyance and environmental protection projects. This bond will be put to the voters of California in November of 2010.

SBx7-6 – A bill requiring groundwater monitoring and reporting requirements and initiating fiscal penalties for failure to do so. This bill raises the level of scrutiny and protection for groundwater basins.

SBx7-7 – A bill requiring all water users in California to practice conservation and efficiency uses of water through new water management and efficiency plans. This bill creates water awareness programs for all Californians.

SBx7-8 – A bill to increase water protection programs through new regulations to stop illegal diversions of water and provide penalties for enforcement. This bill also provides about $4.2 million, through existing funds, to support enforcement programs.

That is it in a nutshell. When you look at the pieces, it all seems quite simple and you have to ask “Why did this take so long?” The simple answer is politics. The real answer is an age old adage: “Whiskey is for drinking. Water is for fighting!”

Whether this “landmark legislation” is the answer to California’s water problems will all be decided by the details. First and foremost, is the detail of funding this program. Without the passage of the November 2010 Water Bond, the promise of the legislation is greatly in danger. Assuming the voters of California will support the “Bay-Delta Solution”, then the devil in the details will fall on the new governance structure. The new governance program will the critical body that moves forward to implement this legislation. The politics will be overwhelming. The stakeholders are numerous, vociferous, and dangerous. So, if you thought the fighting over the language of the bills was nasty, you haven’t seen anything yet!

Let’s celebrate the “landmark legislation” for a little longer, but then it is time to get to the real work of fixing the Bay-Delta delivery system, eco system and regulatory system.

Brookfield San Diego is proud to announce the start of The Foothills, a new Master Planned Community in Carlsbad, California. Three neighborhoods of new single family homes, an apartment neighborhood, a Community Recreation Center, neighborhood pocket parks and a trail system are the first construction projects to get underway. A fourth single family home neighborhood, a commercial office building and an RV storage facility will follow along in 2010. The balance of the Master Plan, including a community park, neighborhood serving commercial and more attached and single family homes will be built in the future.

Situated along Cannon Road, just east of El Camino Real, in central Carlsbad, The Foothills is the first new Master Planned Community in San Diego County since 2006. Grand Opening of the community is planned for the first quarter of next year. Visit Brookfield New Homes San Diego regularly for more information about upcoming neighborhoods, special features and details.

What does all this mean in the real world? This is the first step in a public process that will eventually set the rules and guidelines for how the state will grow and how it will move its goods and people about, with an over-arching goal to reduce the production of GHG emissions to a 1990 level. These recommendations will be utilized by the CARB and CARB staff as they begin to analyze where the state air quality is and how they will reduce carbon emissions in the future. The next several steps look like this:

1. Between now and March 1, 2010, the CARB staff will work closely with the Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO’s) to gather regional specific information on such things as transportation plans, land use plans, housing needs, existing and projected vehicle miles traveled, existing and projected GHG emissions, economic constraints, environmental constraints and social equity issues. This information will then be utilized by CARB staff in the next step.

2. Between March 1, 2010 and June 30, 2010 staff will analyze the information collected above, along with other empirical data, studies and reports to determine preliminary GHG reduction targets per region and statewide. These preliminary targets will be shared with the MPO’s and further refinement of the base information will continue to be shared between the MPO’s and CARB staff.

3. On June 30, 2010, CARB staff will announce their Draft Targets for GHG emission reduction to its Board, the public and the MPO’s. CARB staff and the MPO’s will continue to share and refine their base and supplemental information regarding the draft targets.

4. On September 30, 2010, CARB staff will provide the Board with any final recommendations regarding the statewide and regional GHG emission reduction targets and the Board will hold a public hearing to take testimony and consider the evidence, then adopt a statewide and regional tergets for the reduction of GHG emissions created through transportation and land use decisions made at a local level.

The bulk of the work will be performed by the MPO’s. Input and direction will be sought from the local jurisdictions, in part because MPO’s do not have land use authority. Ultimately, the MPO’s will need to create and adopt a Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS) that identifies changes to land use and transportation infrastructure that meet the targets set by the California Air Resources Board. If the SCS does not meet the GHG targets, then the MPO must prepare and Alternative Planning Strategy (APS) that will meet the target.

Once the SCS or APS is approved by the Board of the MPO, then the local jurisdictions must work to amend their local General Plans and zoning to accommodate the approved SCS. Failure to do so will subject the local jurisdiction to regulatory and potentially judicial jeopardy for their Housing Element and Transportation funding. Compliance with the SCS will provide the local jurisdiction with CEQA relief for some forms of development and future incentives from the state for funding and regulatory relief.

Future posts will include a detailed look at the features and incentives provided in SB 375 and how those programs were handled by the RTAC recommendations. Additionally, some issues still remain with regards to the implementation of SB 375 and the upcoming actions by the CARB may or may not deal with those issues. I will continue to follow this issue and bring back insights and decisions that may impact future land use and transportation decisions.

For now, step one is complete. The RTAC Recommendations have been delivered on time.

These two new requirements appear on pages 4 and 5 of Mortgagee Letter 2009-19, dated June 12, 2009. Now, to be honest, the letter also states that these new rules “…are effective for all case numbers assigned on or after October 1, 2009…”. That means, any projects currently under construction, with an approved FHA case number, will not be impacted by the proposed changes. Well, thank goodness for small favors.

Condominium homes are generally the first rung on the ladder to home ownership. They normally provide a more affordable product for move-down and first time home buyers. In addition, current land planning and greenhouse gas emission reduction initiatives focus on increasing density in urban areas to promote transit use and slow the impact of growth on the problems associated with global warming. It appears that HUD is trying to promote the reduction of condominium construction and decreased urban densities by making the provision of FHA financing for condos more difficult to achieve.

My plea is for HUD to reconsider their position stated in Mortgagee Letter 2009-19. Do not make affordable housing more difficult to build and sell. Do not take away the best product builders have to deliver housing affordable to the average citizen. Do not incentivize low density development because your new rules create such great hurdles for the construction and sale of higher density product.

Again, the pendulum has swung too far. The regulators are regulating for the appearance of control, while in reality, they do not understand the impacts they are creating.

The Framework discussion for the Committee’s recommendations focused primarily on Process and Procedure. In my opinion, the RTAC is focusing on a “bottoms up” approach for the CARB staff to process into a Board recommendation. That is, the Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO’s) desire to provide CARB staff with an initial analysis of the expected capabilities for GHG emissions reduction focused on the “aggressive and achievable” standard outlined in the statute. CARB staff would then use empirical data on the relationship between travel and land use, along with existing Regional Transportation Plans (RTP’s) and Blueprints (regional land use plans) and the GHG reduction benefits from fuels and fuel efficiency to evaluate the MPO proposals.

CARB staff would then respond to the MPO’s with preliminary targets using models, off-model tools and region specific characteristics for their analysis. The MPO’s would be encouraged to comment back to CARB staff and in fact, enter into collaborative analysis using all available data, empirical evidence and policies to create the CARB staff recommendation on the regional targets for the CARB consideration. These recommendations would be released for public comment prior to the Board’s meeting and action.

This Framework seems to be gaining support among RTAC members and CARB staff. The four largest MPO’s have offered to begin some preliminary off-model sketch planning to provide CARB staff with some initial data input. The preliminary timing for this initial work is December 2009.

On the Procedural side of the RTAC’s recommendations, the committee is coalescing around the use of existing transportation planning models for early years’ analysis, with augmentation by off-model tools, like sketch planning. Supplementing these early year models and off-model tools would be policies and programs to enhance the opportunity to capture a maximum percentage of the GHG reduction potential. The RTAC will likely recommend the continued growth of modeling capabilities through a coordinated effort by all MPO’s, CalTrans, the California Transportation Commission (CTC) and CARB, with a goal of a consistent and transparent modeling capability within a 5-10 year time frame. In the interim, the MPO’s will work together with CARB staff to maximize the opportunities for consistency between the existing modeling formats.

Policies to be considered in the creation of GHG Emission Reduction Targets will likely include Best Management Practices (BMP’s) that MPO’s can utilize to augment their transportation modeled, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) reduction strategies. Such BMP’s could include Smart Growth Strategies, Land Use Measures, Transportation Measures, and Pricing Strategies. These policies are still being discussed by the RTAC and recommendations of specific BMP’s have not yet been suggested.

The next meeting of the RTAC will be on August 18th, at the Cal/EPA Headquarters Building in the Coastal Hearing Room from 9:00 am – 4:00 pm. The Cal/EPA building is located at 1001 I Street in Sacramento. The meeting is open to the public and will be webcast.

Senate Bill 375 (SB 375, 2008), provides for the same levels of GHG reduction from new land development or redevelopment projects through a new system for land use planning focused on the reduction of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by light trucks and cars. SB 375 also called for the creation of a technical advisory committee to advise the California Air Resources Board (CARB) on the methodology and policies to be used to calculate the GHG reduction targets for each of the regional planning areas in the state. I have the honor of being selected to serve on this Regional Targets Advisory Committee (RTAC) and have been doing so since its creation in February of this year. The RTAC report to CARB is due at the end of September.

RTAC is investigating the current status of transportation and land use planning tools in the 17 major Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) in the state. We are debating the merits of transportation modeling tools and policy programs. We are reviewing current published data on the issues and researching new ideas. Starting with our next meeting (August 5th), we will begin to put the structure of our recommendations into place.

August and September will be very busy months for the RTAC. We will be meeting for five or more days as we push our way through volumes of technical material and public comments. Balancing the current capabilities of MPO’s, CARB and local jurisdictions to implement new rules and guidelines for land use planning and transportation management is no small task. When you add in issues like the current economic conditions and the weakness of the California economy, the RTAC has its hands full … and then some.

If you are more interested in the workings of the RTAC and the details surrounding most of the information we are handling, you can visit the CARB website and the RTAC pages in particular. Our meeting notes, agendas and even the webcasts are all stored on the RTAC pages. I will try to keep you informed as we work our way into and through the recommendation process. Just check back here regularly for future updates.

My time at PCBC was spent at each of the various offering. I attended the Opening Breakfast and was fascinated by Fareed Zakaria’s powerful insights into the world’s economical and political realities. He took the audience from the biggest international news of the day, right down to its impacts on our local economy and neighborhood consumers. He provided tremendous insight and understanding of the issues critical to our daily business decisions.

I celebrated the induction of six new members into the California Homebuilding Foundation’s Hall of Fame. I’m proud to say I consider Forest “Woody” Brehm of Brehm Communities, Layne Marcaeu of Shea Homes, Chip Pierson of the Dahlin Group and Jeffrey Slavin of HomeAid good friends and colleagues. Ray Becker of DMB, who left us too early last year, was also a good friend and colleague. I was pleased to meet and get to know Richard Oliphant of Oliphant Enterprises, a builder from the Coachella Valley. All six of these gentlemen are very deserving and great additions to the Hall of Fame.

I spent a couple of days working the exhibition floor. Sustainability and Green Building were definitely the issues in the forefront for most exhibitors and many home builders and industry members. Upgrades in photovoltaic systems were big attention grabbers. New forms of insulation, high energy savings devices and appliances, and sustainable construction materials were also well represented. Learning to be a “greener builder” or “greener developer” was an easy goal to accomplish.

Likewise, the educational programs were focused on delivering the “Green” message. From the way home builders design new communities, to products going into their new homes, to how we advertise and market our “Green” product, if you wanted to learn about “Green” PCBC was a great source of information.

Brookfield’s own, Lora Heramb, VP of Sales and Marketing, headlined one of the first educational sessions of the conference, “Building an Effective Homebuilder Brand Using Social Media”. Lora, along with Jason Baer of Convince & Convert and Jonathan Bailey of Bailey Gardiner Inc, lead a discussion and provided hands on participation in the use of Social Media tools to reach out and touch the next generation of home buyers. I mean, when was the last time you sat down in a meeting or classroom and the leader of the program asked the audience to “turn on your cells phones and computers! We want your participation in this discussion.”

PCBC turned 50 in 2009! “The New Age of Invention” delivered on all cylinders! I’m sorry if you missed the Big Show! We’ve come a long way from the Palace Hotel in 1959. But, we are just getting started. Mark your calendars now and be sure to attend PCBC, June 9 – 11, 2010. It is the best of the best, when you need to know what is going on in the Community Development and New Home Construction Industry.