SAN DIEGO, CA (March)  The 33-unit for-sale Meadows affordable housing project in Poway has won the SDG&E Award of Excellence for Energy Efficient Homes Featuring Comfort, Quality & Energy Savings. Presented to Pacific Scene Homes and Legacy Building Services, the award recognizes the sustainable efforts that were made to reduce environmental impacts in this unique project.

The Meadows in the City of Poway features 33 high performance affordable homes with amenities rarely seen in the affordable home market. Each home at The Meadows showcases a 2.3 kilowatt solar electric roof system, tankless water heaters, fully landscaped drought-tolerant front and rear yards, efficient heat and air conditioning systems, and energy star appliances.  Through the use of effective insulation, high performance windows, tight construction, and energy efficient products, each single-story home at The Meadows is an EPA rated Energy Star qualified new home that is at least 15% more energy efficient than a new home built to the 2004 International Residential Code (IRC).

Pacific Scene Homes and Legacy Building Services (Legacy) partnered with the Poway Redevelopment Agency to create this for-sale community in the City of Poway’s core.  Aptly named The Meadows due to its proximity overlooking a large natural open space, The Meadows complements Poway’s “City in the Country” character; a sense of place where people want to live, work, raise a family, and enjoy the natural, cultural, and recreational facilities offered in the community.  All of the 33 single-family attached and detached homes are for sale to Affordable income eligible First-time homebuyers through the Poway Redevelopment Agency’s Supporting Home Ownership in Poway (S.H.O.P.) Program.

With the affordable housing industry’s vision, core principle’s and the Poway Redevelopment Agency’s achievements as the catalyst, Pacific Scene began The Meadows planning and design process with a focus of spreading the positive perception that building quality affordable housing enhances communities. The Meadows was an opportunity to showcase a commitment to quality, sustainability, durability, and ease of maintenance, further exemplifying that building an affordable housing community doesn’t mean building ordinary housing.

The Meadows is a testament that public-private partnership projects can be attractive, cost effective and help to improve the social, economical and environmental well-being of the community.  Market rate developers, community stakeholders and non-profit affordable housing developers can indeed pool resources to foster partnerships to enhance the economy of the cities we are in, and introduce durable environmental improvements as part of our development strategy to create cleaner, more energy efficient, safer places to live, work and play.