Residents with ideas about what they’d like included in Boulder County’s new Climate Smart Loan Program are invited to bring their comments to a Tuesday evening workshop. Under the program, approved by Boulder County voters in the Nov. 4 election, the county plans to make low-cost loans available to residents and businesses to install energy-efficiency and renewable-energy improvements to their properties. Boulder County Ballot Issue 1A, supported by 64 percent of voters, authorizes the county to sell up to $40 million in bonds to create a pool of money to fund those loans. The bonds will be backed by, and repaid from, special assessments on participating properties. Repayment won’t become an obligation of Boulder County’s other taxpayers. Tuesday’s 5 p.m. workshop in a third-floor hearing room at the Boulder County Courthouse will allow people to see what energy-efficiency practices and renewable-energy technologies may be eligible for loans under the program. Ann Livingston, Boulder County’s sustainability coordinator, said the workshop will have an open-house format so people can show up at any point during the evening “Folks don’t have to be here the whole two hours,” she said. The program is to allow people to borrow money for such renewable-energy devices as solar power systems or to make energy-efficiency upgrades to their homes or businesses. Boulder County commissioners are expected to act on the final form of the Climate Smart Loan Program sometime in January.
Boulder County officials also are seeking suggestions about the types of energy-efficiency modifications to homes that residents would like included in the new program.