Tucson, Civano, and the Sustainable Energy Standard

Abstract

Civano was originally conceived as the “Tucson solar village,”
in Arizona as an outgrowth of builder and consumer interest in solar
designs with a natural and appropriate extension of desert living. Led
by the Metropolitan Energy Commission, a number of local builders
and environmentalists obtained a commitment from the Arizona Energy
Offi ce to fund the planning and design of the prototype community. As
research progressed, the planners soon began to contemplate compre-
hensive extensions of their original idea, including energy and water
conservation, solid waste reduction, and lower air pollution. “Solar vil-
lage” soon became a much larger concept, and the community of Civano
began to take shape. It was to be sustainable, and it was to incorporate
many of the compact, life-enhancing, and socially integrated aspects of
America’s small towns.
The goal of the Civano project is to demonstrate the marketability
of sustainable community development on a large scale at affordable
prices. This 820-acre traditional neighborhood development utilizes
proven available technology to reduce natural resource usage substan-
tially below current levels. The property is located on state trust land in
the city of Tucson, southeast of Houghton and Irvington Roads; zoning
in the area was modified to support the Civano project. At the time,
Civano was the largest development experiment of its type, and perhaps
still is.