Building communities of affordable, attractive, healthful housing for farmworker families and other low-income clients has been the mission of the nonprofit Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation (CEDC) for more than 25 years. Like any other builder, Cabrillo works hard to squeeze maximum value out of its construction budget—not only keeping initial costs in check but with keen awareness of ongoing utility and maintenance costs, durability, and the effect its buildings have on the health of the people who live in them.

Vista Hermosa, a new complex of 24 two-, three-, and four-bedroom apartments off Palm Avenue in Santa Paula, includes a variety of energy-efficient and sustainable building practices. Cabrillo plans to follow these practices and more as standard operating procedure on its future projects.

“Building green is multi-dimensional and multi-beneficial,” says Gerard Kapuscik, a member of Cabrillo’s Board of Directors and an advisor on its green building efforts. “If we can do our part to protect the planet, reduce our carbon footprint, and save money too—that’s a good combination.”

While the planning for Vista Hermosa was well under way before Cabrillo’s board agreed to make sustainability a priority, the organization’s next project—Villa Victoria in Oxnard—will be designed green from the start.

“We can’t subsidize green building at the expense of our core mission of providing quality, affordable housing,” Kapuscik says. Fortunately, there’s no need to choose—the goals go hand-in-hand, especially where energy efficiency is at stake. Measures that make the buildings more energy-efficient not only benefit the environment, they save money for the tenants—who pay their own utility bills. Rent is fixed at 30% of tenants’ income; the less they must spend on utilities, the more they have left over for food, clothing, and other essentials.

A Focus on Energy Efficiency. So the energy-efficient tankless water heaters in the attic not only provide hot water for showers and cooking but also feed closed-circuit radiant hydronic heating systems that warm the apartments. Radiant barriers in the roof reflect the sun and help hold down cooling costs. High performance windows and doors and extra insulation not only help minimize both heating and cooling bills, they also keep the homes quieter.

Project manager Dan Hardy was assisted by the Ventura County Regional Energy Alliance (VCREA) in developing the green building principles which were used in the Vista Hermosa project. The VCREA funded a design charrette (where a group of designers focus on a design challenge) for the project addressing energy efficient and green building principles. The Green Building Council of Ventura County assisted with this effort, along with various energy efficiency and building consultants and developers. The principles developed through this process will continue to be refined and used by the CEDC on future building projects.

VCREA’s David Inger helped Hardy choose lights that would provide the most illumination for every watt, 95% of them compact fluorescents. High-efficiency, ENERGY STAR air conditioners and clothes washers add to the ongoing energy savings.

The building itself will make energy-saving “decisions” thanks to several bits of automation that were built in:

• Daylight sensors turn exterior lights on at dusk and off at dawn.
• Motion sensors in the public community room turn off the lights when no one is present, and turn them on when
• A satellite-controlled irrigation system senses when it’s time to switch on the sprinklers for the low-water using landscape. “There’s an especially quick return on investment on that,” says Hardy.

Healthy Materials. Cabrillo avoided products and materials that can contribute unhealthy fumes to the indoor atmosphere as well as to the outdoor environment, including no-VOC paints and adhesives, and formaldehyde-free insulation. After working amid chemical fertilizers and pesticides, Kapuscik says, “farmworkers deserve to come home to a healthy environment.”

A drainage bioswale behind the building intersperses stretches of concrete with patches of grass, allowing runoff to percolate into the ground and help recharge the aquifer. Tenants are encouraged to recycle, using a convenient recycling bin.



Growing Greener. Because Cabrillo employs its own construction crews, any learning curve required to work with new techniques or materials will pay off on future projects. Each step toward developing standard operating procedures that are energy- and environment-wise will save time and money from now on.

“We hope to take the things we have learned at Vista Hermosa and standardize them in future developments,” Hardy says. For example, Villa Victoria in Oxnard and Paseo Santa Clara, a community of 140 apartments and town homes in RiverPark, will include solar photovoltaic panels to power common areas. “We are also working to find alternatives to using vinyl and plastics.”

By asking suppliers and subcontractors to supply bids both for conventional materials and their greener alternatives, better decisions can be made about which features provide the most bang for the all-too-scarce bucks. Cabrillo made a list of the next 10 things they would do if money remained available as they neared the end of the project. At monthly meetings with the contractors, says Hardy, “we kept coming back to that list of things we wanted to do.”

The sheer variety of energy-saving materials and techniques can be intimidating, with new products and practices being introduced all the time. Prioritizing options in advance can streamline the decision-making process and avoid wasted time and money.

“There are millions of consultants out there,” Hardy says. “What it boils down to is having standards in place so you can make informed decisions in timely fashion.”