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It takes a campus community to build a village

Some interesting changes have been taking place behind the scenes of the planned Faculty and Staff Village. The village received a source of financing, a detailed survey to determine University faculty and staff housing needs is in the works, and the groundwork is being laid for the village to become a trailblazing community model for sustainability and urban growth.

The Faculty and Staff Village, to be located at a 25-acre site on Ramona Avenue, is planned to accommodate several hundred new single- and multi-family homes for University faculty and staff, as well as parks, community facilities and a child care center.

Recently, the California State University announced it will finance the construction of the village. “Since the California State University and the University now own the land and the houses, we will not need developer participation in preliminary planning or project financing.” says Tim Dean, project manager for the Faculty and Staff Village. The University will be responsible for preparing architectural standards for the village, as well as what the energy consumption will be and what the minimum- and maximum-sized homes will be.

“In order for the University to make those determinations, we’ll be releasing a new, specific faculty and staff survey,” says Dean. “The survey will enable us to gauge demand for village homes more accurately and to pinpoint home sizes and features we will provide,” Dean anticipates the survey will be released in the beginning of November and emphasizes the importance of responses from all faculty and staff, not just those interested in becoming future residents of the village.

From the survey, the University will be able to build a comprehensive profile of the entire village, including accurate dollar projections based on demand and lot sizes, among other details. Once the profile is complete, the project will go to bid to developers sometime in mid-2008, says Dean.

The first occupancy of new homes is anticipated in 2010.

The Faculty and Staff Village is one of 238 pilot projects worldwide in the new LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for Neighborhood Development rating system. “There are 42 pilot projects in California, and four in the Sacramento area,” says Dean. “The U.S. Green Building Council has developed several LEED rating systems for different building types, but this new system is for entire neighborhoods.” LEED rating systems are becoming national and international standards for measuring quality, performance, and sustainability in the constructed environment.

LEED Neighborhood Development points are earned for a neighborhood’s smart growth and green construction features in 49 different categories, such as housing/jobs proximity, energy conservation, habitat conservation and pedestrian and transit orientation. Depending upon points earned, the project can achieve bronze, silver, gold, or platinum LEED certification. “We expect that the Village will attain at least a LEED-ND Gold rating,” says Dean.

University students are also becoming involved in the Faculty and Staff Village project. Geography professor Michael Schmandt’s class “Urban and Regional Planning” uses village planning as a large part of the course. Students are asked to develop comprehensive and land-use plans specifically for the planned village.

“I wanted the students to think in tangible terms about land use and transportation issues, and the Faculty and Staff Village project was a good example,” says Schmandt. “The student response to this has been passionate. They are talking about what can be done for a greater connection between the University and the larger community with this specific project.” Schmandt anticipates sharing the students’ ideas for the village with the University.

For more information on the Faculty and Staff Village, call University Enterprises, Inc. at (916) 278-7001 or visit www.enterprises.csus.edu/village. For more information about LEED for Neighborhood Development, visit www.usgbc.org.