The Civic Master Plan calls for a 200 room 5-star hotel and spa, a 150-180 room downtown boutique-style hotel, six, eight and ten story luxury condominium towers, 17 single family luxury riverfront estate homes, 11 blocks of single family town homes, residential/retail "work-live lofts", retail stores, restaurants, art galleries and office buildings.

The $700-$900 million development preserves the grid pattern of streets, with six squares, a park, fountains, tree lined streets, wide pedestrian walkways, and riverfront plazas which make historic Savannah such a unique urban setting. See the Civic Master Plan at the Savannah River Landing website.

While most architectural, energy-efficient and sustainable energy details are yet to be formulated, at least we have been spared another, restrictive, gated community. Savannah River Landing promises to be a gracious extension of downtown, and will have the further benefit of stimulating the development of other parcels across President's Street, General MacIntosh Blvd., and Trustees Garden.

According to Lise Sundria, Executive Director, Savannah Development and Renewal Authority, at a recent presentation to Buy Local Savannah (aboard the Georgia Queen - an intersting venue for such a meeting) the master plan was formulated over several years with property owners, the city, Metropolitan Planning Commission, Historic Savannah Foundation, and major developer Ambling Land & Resort and consulting help from the local firm of Sottile & Sottile.

Christian Sottile raised the promise that the latest building technologies would be incorporated in the project, complicated by the fact that there will be many different developers and builders, each with their own vision. The degree of energy efficiency, the use of solar, geothermal and other forms of alternate energy, the incorporation of hydrogen fuel cells cannot be required by the city. The city can establish "built to lines" so the buildings are close to the sidewalks, the maximum height of a building on a particular block, and the requirement that all buildings have a street front entrance.

From a Green Perspective however, at the present time too much is left to the "greeness" of the builder or developer. There is the outside chance the city might be able to persuade builders to adhere to some form of LEED certification, but even that would not require the incorporation of renewable energy.

Unless some serious proactive attention is paid to energy consumption this development could become an energy "black hole" for the next 50 years.

As the build-out of this development will span five to ten years, with first construction scheduled for late 2007, how about making this project the Largest Near Zero-Energy Community in America? Such a designation would enhance ecotourism, stimulate real estate sales, build an alternate energy infrastrutuce that would provide new jobs and benefit the region, attract "green" businesses and their well-educated and civic-minded employees, and bridge the transition of the City of Savannah from the Eighteenth Century to the Twenty-First.

Here's one pathway to Zero Energy:

The first step always is to reduce energy demand. This is accomplished by construction techniques that "tighten" the building envelope, increase the amount of insulation, use highly energy efficient appliances and lighting, and incorporate as much natural daylighting as feasible. New construction should cut energy demand by at least 30% compared to "standard construction" or "building to code".

Planting green roofs reduces the carbon footprint of the building and reduces rainwater runoff while providing extra insulation. Roofs can also include new materials that incorporate solar cells, or mount solar photovoltaic (electricity producing) modules and/or solar water heating systems.

Buildings can be designed to use Building Integrated Photovoltaic materials for awnings, windows, curtain walls. Pole-mounted solar panels can be placed along the periphery of the wetlands. Solar panels can form canopies over parking lots.

Geeothermal energy sources can be located beneath the squares and park and under parking lots, in the courtyards of town homes, and yards of estate homes.

Larger buildings can generate their own "base load" electricity using fuel cells that initially are fueled by natural gas, but eventually adapted to use renewable-energy-produced hydrogen.

This concept is not pie-in-the-sky. These techniques are being used around the world, and with careful preplanning can add from zero to modest costs to construction that are paid back through reduced energy expense.

"Savannah River Landing! The Largest Near Zero Energy Community in America!"
Doesn't that have a really nice sound? Let's do it.

--by J. Star

Questions? Comments? Email Jack Star