Ordinance 2008-1539 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Louisville Mayor and City Council RE: COUNTY-WIDE FINANCING PROGRAMS UNDER HOUSE BILL 08-1350: RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS FOR PRIVATE PROPERTY OWNERS Dear Mayor and City Council: House Bi1108-1350 creates state law authority for counties and other local governments to provide below-market financing and favorable repayment terms and methodologies to enable residents and business owners to install renewable energy systems and/or improved energy efficiency capital improvements on their properties. Boulder County is currently working to take advantage of this new authority, and to include on the ballot in November the necessary authorization to implement a Clean Energy Options Local Improvement District county-wide. H.B. 1350 allows for the following components: Local Improvement District and Street Improvement District (LID/SID) Financing: The new legislation provides authority for counties, cities and towns to utilize local improvement districts ("street improvement districts" for cities/towns) as a means of financing capital improvements to residences and commercial structures for either renewable energy systems and/or energy efficiency installations. In addition, the law provided that the benefited properties needn't be contiguous to each other. A significant difference in the local improvement: district structure when utilized for this purpose is that this creates a voluntary "opt-in" type of district, whereby only those property owners who choose to utilize LID/SID financing; to fund these improvements on their properties will be responsible for the special assessments necessary to repay the financing. Boulder County is moving forward with the steps necessary to establish a local improvement district, titled the Clean Energy Options Local Improvement District, to include all properties in Boulder County. 2. Tax Exempt Financing: Federal law currently permits states and local governments to issue tax-exempt bonds to provide i.'or lower-cost financing for capital improvements to residences and commercial structures for renewable energy systems and/or energy efficiency installations. State law has now been amended to expressly adopt that provision of federal law. Thus, local governments can now utilize some or all of their federally authorized state "pass-through" volume cap allocation to issue bonds to create a fund for providing loans for private renewable energy systems and energy efficiency installations.