Boulder Gets Bolder, Regulates Mansions

Boulder, Colorado has taken an interesting step towards energy efficiency by strictly regulating houses, based on square footage. The bigger the house, the more energy efficient it will need to be.

It is almost a truism for ecologically minded planners that big houses leave a big carbon footprint, and have big per capita carbon costs. Conspicuous consumption may have in part fueled Boulder’s populist legislation, the Buildsmart program, which requires zero or better net energy balance from homes 5,000 square feet or larger. Though some argue that the zoning rules are a form of “lifestyle management”, it is also a fact that some lifestyles come with a heavier carbon cost that we all are penalized by. This, and that Boulder's average home size grew from 2,881 square feet in 1990 to 6,290 by 2006, necessarily encouraging unsustainable sprawl.

Cities have typically used square footage zoning to exclude ‘big box’ stores from their communities; this is the first time that square footage is correlated to energy consumption in homes, and raises the bar for Boulder’s builders. Though builders are making some noise about now having to provide energy systems with projects, it sounds like a good idea to me. Beyond that, this type of zoning legislation is a skillful, and Constitutional, way to institute sustainable planning principles that regulate the offenders fairly, proportionate to output.