Avon Town Council adopts all-electric, net-zero resolution for community housing

During its Tuesday, Aug. 22 meeting, the Avon Town Council adopted an all-electric, net-zero energy use policy for future community housing projects in Avon. The resolution will apply to all community housing projects in Avon, including non-town community housing projects such as projects that receive tax and fee waivers from the town of Avon.

“This would be in lockstep with the climate action plan, which looks to be all-electric by 2030. As is explained in the memo, this would be supportive to any grant applications, and it is the right thing to do, quite frankly, for any new construction,” said Matt Pielsticker, the town’s planning director. “Yes, new construction is inherently more efficient these days, but going all-electric has been a push valley-wide, and this is a policy to back that up and show our peers what we’re doing.”

The Climate Action Plan for the Eagle County Community, enacted in 2016 and revised in 2020, established greenhouse gas reduction targets for the county of 50% by 2030 and 80% by 2050 from a baseline taken in 2014. The Avon Town Council has adopted the county-wide climate action plan.

“For new and remodeled residential and commercial buildings, adopt ‘above building code’ standards and incentives, and implement net-zero or all-electric construction requirements by 2030,” the plan states as a goal. Beginning in 2021, as well, 10% of all new construction in Eagle County is supposed to be net zero or all-electric.

Though the concept of all-electric and net zero housing is exciting, council members were careful to question the practicality of the resolution. Mayor Pro Tem Tamra Underwood spoke out in favor of the living conditions of future residents of all-electric, net-zero apartments, asking about the state of non-gas cooktops.

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“It goes to what we were talking about before, about a quality outside living space, a place to store your gear, and a nice cooktop (are) really important element(s) of a nice apartment,” Underwood said.

Council member Rich Carroll also pushed back on the relative lack of information in the presented resolution.

“Do we have any feel for what the difference in utilities might be, in some of these things that are all-electric versus a mix of electric and natural gas?” Carroll asked. Carroll additionally requested more information on the lifecycle and efficiency of electric technology.

Pielsticker was unable to answer either councilperson’s questions but assured both that strides have been made recently in electric technology, and there should not be any outstanding issues.

The language of the resolution reads less definitively than many other resolutions the town has enacted, for a purpose. The resolution states that new community housing projects the town of Avon invests in ‘should be all-electric,’ and ‘should achieve Net Zero energy use.’

Avon Mayor Amy Phillips explained that the term ‘should,’ rather than the more directly instructive ‘shall,’ was for the purpose of prioritizing the county’s climate action goals, rather than adhering strictly to electric energy.

“We actually had a discussion on ‘should’ versus ‘shall,’ and it is specifically so that a future council, if for some reason are presented with an alternative that still meets the climate action goals, but doesn’t exactly conform to this, a future council could still approve,” Phillips said.

During the voice voting procedure, Carroll voted no, and then was joined by Council member Chico Thuon, leading the council to take a roll-call vote. With a vote of five in favor and two opposed, the resolution for all future community housing projects in Avon to be all-electric and net zero was passed.

Though the resolution passed, Carroll had the last word.

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“I’m all for the net zero, and being as efficient as we possibly can,” he said. “From my perspective, right now, based on the information that I have from people that are for this, and people that have troubles with it, for me, I feel like it is being forced down my throat, and I feel like I am making a decision without the full cost ramifications of the decision. Maybe this is going to be more efficient for the people that live in the apartments. Maybe utility bills are going to go down, maybe they’re going to go up. I don’t know, and I think not knowing bothers me. So not knowing, I err on the side of flexibility, and the reality for me is this resolution doesn’t give me the flexibility I need to make a fully informed decision.”