Policy Recommendations: Leadville, Colorado

This was a semester long class project in which we addressed four separate tasks: a site design for affordable housing, infill and design guidelines, creating a complete streets and trails network, and policy recommendations. I was part of the team that focused on creating policy recommendations. Our client for this project was the City of Leadville, a small mining town in the Rocky Mountains, and the county Leadville is in, Lake County. The project had three phases and at the end of each phase we presented our research and ideas to our client group and received feedback. We also compiled all of our work into a written chapter.

Within the policy recommendation team, we decided to focus on four different areas of policy: affordable housing, transportation, economic development, and energy. My role throughout the project centralized on energy policy.

During the first phase of the project we conducted an existing conditions assessment. The first step we took was to review the existing plans within Leadville and Lake County. Part of my role was to concentrate on the sections of the plans that addressed energy. The next step was to research existing policies, programs, and organizations that address each of our policy areas. We did this through a combination of interviews with local officials and experts and online research. The bulk of this research was conducted during this phase, but we continued to learn more during later phases as well. My research and interview questions focused around energy efficiency and solar energy. A few key facts I learned are below.​​​​​​​ We also started researching case studies during this phase.

The first step of this phase was to solidify our goals and objectives. Each policy area had its own goal and objectives. For energy, the goal and objectives were as follows:

We also collaboratively created a framework to tie our four policy areas – affordable housing, transportation, economic development, and energy – together. We came up with the ELEVATE concept, which is:

This framework had three vision elements – Character, Opportunity, and Livability. Each policy area influenced each other and supported one or more of these vision elements.

During this phase we also researched successful policies that other municipalities had implemented, taking into account Leadville and Lake County’s specific culture, geography, and financial reality. Throughout the course of this phase, I developed four policy recommendations to improve energy efficiency in buildings and four recommendations to encourage energy independence through solar. Because C4 had done so much successful work concerning energy efficiency, I focused more on the recommendations concerning solar. They are as follows:

During this phase we finalized the ELEVATE concept, fleshed out one or more primary recommendations for each policy area, and created an implementation plan for each primary recommendation. The primary energy policy recommendation was to “Establish a solar group-buy program”. Solar group-buy programs enable residents and businesses to buy solar panels in bulk, and therefore at a discount. My role was to explain solar group-buys in more detail, so I researched how they work, how solar installers benefit from participating, and what the challenges are.

I also made the connection between solar energy and our vision elements clearer. Residential solar could enhance the character of the area by increasing energy independence. It could also enhance opportunity in the area in two ways. First, residents that generate more energy than they use have the option to sell their excess energy. Second, solar energy has the potential to be an industry that supports the economy and could be used to market Leadville and Lake County to attract businesses. Lastly, solar energy could enhance livability by preserving affordability through lowered energy costs and protecting residents from increases in the market price for energy.

Our implementation plan for each policy area is as follows:

Our final presentation was to our client group and members of the public. Our presentations were also filmed and put on Facebook so residents who could not be there could still see the different ideas we came up with. Lastly, our team compiled all of the written chapters from each phase into a final report.