Published on 05/06/2014 – 4:04 pm
Written by Business Journal staff
The Visalia City Council voted on two resolutions to give homes and commercial facilities in the city a few new tools for financing water and energy upgrades.
Visalia voted to join its first PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) program offered through CaliforniaFIRST in March 2013.
With the validation process wrapping up last month, commercial property owners in the city can invest in improvements like solar panels and new heating systems through loans that can be repaid over 20 years via a special assessment on their property tax bills.
During its meeting on May 5, the city council also voted to become the newest member of the California HERO financing program and Tulare County’s own PACE program.
The HERO program was started up in 2011 with a partnership between the Western Riverside Council of Governments and Renovate America, Inc.
Since that time, the program has approved more than $706 million in applications and completed more than $179 million in projects and is still the only PACE program approved to finance residential improvements in the state.
HERO has contractors at its disposal that will see through more than 150,000 types of water and energy remedies, including heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) repairs, solar panel installations, cool roofs, energy-saving windows, lighting upgrades, insulation, drip irrigation and gray water systems. Read more.