The new proposed student housing at Cal Poly provides our community with the opportunity to develop a village with intention and sustainability. The new housing project will double the amount of on-site units with an addition of a 2,700-bed student housing complex on 27 acres of Cal Poly farmland. The current conceptual plan calls for the creation of an on-campus village that will include 2,000 additional parking spaces, shopping centers, movie theaters and restaurants. The housing complex would include one, two and four bedroom apartments three to five stories tall.

Cal Poly describes the housing as a “unique opportunity to create twenty-first century living and learning.” Their goal is to “establish an atmosphere that is studentcentered, stimulating, socially supportive and environmentally responsible.” The University has approached the project from a new direction by allowing Capstone West to develop, finance and construct the housing at their risk alone. The new approach is designed to move the process along faster and lower overall costs while providing quality living. Cal Poly will later acquire the facility by issuing bonds. The proposal is favorable to all corners. The new housing will help alleviate the current housing crisis shared by both Cal Poly State University and the community of San Luis Obispo, help fulfill growth requirements within the county and possibly keep the cost of rent from skyrocketing. However the most exciting opportunity is the opportunity to build a village that stands as an example of sustainable living, demonstrating that the human impact on the environment can be reduced without a reduction in quality of life.

On the great day of August 2nd in the year of 2000, Governor of California Gray Davis signed and approved Executive Order D-16-00. The order committed California to provide leadership on energy and environmental and public health issues by implementing innovative and resourceefficient public building design practices. The order defines such practices, their implementation and their benefits in the following manner:

“[S]ustainable building practices utilize energy, water, and materials efficiently throughout the building life cycle; enhance indoor air quality; improve employee health, comfort and productivity; and incorporate environmentally preferable products; and thereby substantially reduce the costs and environmental impacts associated with long-term building operations, without compromising building performance or the needs of future generations. The widespread adoption of sustainable building principles would result in significant long-term benefits to the California environment, including reductions in smog generation, runoff of water pollutants to surface and groundwater sources, demand for energy, water and sewage treatment services, and fiscal and environmental impacts resulting from the expansion of these infrastructures. The sustainable building goal of my administration is to site, design, deconstruct, construct, renovate, operate, and maintain state buildings that are models of energy, water, and materials efficiency, while providing healthy, productive and comfortable indoor environments and long-term benefits to Californians. The objectives are to implement the sustainable building goal in a cost-effective manner, while considering externalities; identifying economic and environmental performance measures; determining cost savings; using extended life cycle costing; and adopting an integrated, systems approach. Such an approach treats the entire building as one system and recognizes that individual building features, such as lighting, windows, heating and cooling, and controls, are not stand-alone systems.”

It is clear that the opportunity to investigate and evaluate building practices that integrate ecological, social and cultural aspects of life can be implemented in our own backyards. In fact, in order to honor this executive decision, the current visionary teams must have access to such information.

The order states that all State entities under the Governor’s jurisdiction, including Trustees of the California State Universities, shall cooperate fully with the Secretary and provide assistance and information as needed. They shall broadly consult with appropriate private sector individuals and public officials. There are many qualified individuals in this community that can provide such information. It is our obligation to organize and provide choices that are both economically and ecologically sustainable, and it is their obligation to consult on and implement such techniques.

We the people of this community must acknowledge the new housing complex, provide sustainable choices to the decision makers and require them to implement these solutions.

There is currently a small group, representing the Sustainable Building Council of San Luis Obispo, gathering and organizing information to present to Cal Poly, Capstone West and the city. You can help out in many ways. You are the difference.