But for the crummy economy, developers Ron Monahan and Terry Britton likely would have built all of the six townhouses and six single-family homes planned for SpringLeaf, their 1.75-acre eco-development in northwest Boulder, Colorado. Instead, they decided to move forward a bit more cautiously, building only one of the single-family houses, albeit with high-end finishes and renewables.

Visitors showing up earlier this month for SpringLeaf’s first open-house toured the 3,888-sq.-ft. $1.24 million three-bedroom and got the lowdown on its $49,000 geothermal heat pump system (with two wells, each 300 ft. deep) and a grid-linked 9.9kW photovoltaic system. As noted in a recent story in the长时间呼叫, the developers fully expect that the model – a big house by green construction standards – will earn LEED Platinum certification and perform at or very near net-zero energy. The performance and sustainability goals are the same (or very similar) for the remaining units, although those homes will be built, as SpringLeaf finds buyers, to a smaller scale and at a lower price.

“That’s the next thing we’re chasing,” Monahan told the paper. “We’ve hit the LEED Platinum out of the park; now we’re going after the price point.”

Serial green

SpringLeaf is not Monahan’s first high-efficiency green project. Collaborating with Boulder-based architectGeorge Watt，谁也设计了Springleaf，Monahan2月宣布plans to build what he said will be the first zero-energy home in South Carolina as part of Phase One of The Ridge at Chukker Creek, a project that includes 75 Energy Star homes.

SpringLeaf also is progressing in the spirit of other projects in the Boulder area that have embraced green principles, includingGeos, a net-zero-energy mixed-use community that, if developer Norbert Klebl’s financing plans stay on track, will include as many as 240 homes and 30 live/work spaces on 25 acres in Arvada, Colorado, about 20 minutes southeast of Boulder.

如上所述the SpringLeaf website，计划开发的剩余家庭采用三居室，双半浴布局，高达2,700平方英尺的内部空间，以及地热和太阳能系统。