The Villages of Loreto Bay

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===The Villages of Loreto Bay===

Loreto Bay is a growing seaside community, situated on 8,000 acres on the shores of the Sea of Cortés, Baja California Sur, Mexico, 8km south of the town of Loreto. When completed, The Villages of Loreto Bay will consist of approximately 6,000 homes in nine village settings each with shops, grocery stores and services within an easy walk of the homes. Existing and planned amenities will include two 18-hole championship golf courses, a luxurious Beach Club, spas, a tennis center, a marina and sport fishing center, along with restaurants, boutiques, galleries and a produce market. Presently the first neighborhood, Founders' Village, is 75% built with an anticipated completion date of late 2008.

The principles of New Urbanism inspired the planning and design of The Villages of Loreto Bay. New Urbanism is an international movement to reform the design of cities and neighborhoods to create better places to live. It strives to be the revival of our lost art of place-making, a move away from automobile dependence and urban sprawl and a return to the way communities have been built for centuries around the world. New Urbanism produces a town like those great villages in Europe and old Mexico.

Loreto Bay is specifically designed to address sustainability in all three key areas: economic, social and environmental. Sustainability priorities were determined for areas such as energy conservation, water consumption, habitat protection and enhancement, reduction of solid waste materials and air pollution. Economic opportunities and development are addressed through housing, planning and training as well as the creation of new jobs and local business enterprises. Social sustainability occurs by funding the local medical facility and supporting education, recreation, culture, health and wellness and business enterprise capacity building in Loreto through the non-profit Loreto Bay Foundation. The Master Plan of this emerging community includes environmental preservation, creating jobs, devoting a portion of home sales to the community and setting aside 5,000 acres as a natural preserve. The New Urbanism movement is driven by the quest for improved livability and quality of life – for people and for the environment – through the design of homes, neighborhoods, towns and cities that enrich and enhance both. This involves:

• Providing independence of movement for everyone (especially the elderly and the young) by bringing most of the activities of daily living within walking distance.
• Minimizing congestion, the expenses of road construction and air pollution by reducing the number and length of automobile trips required in a community.
• Bringing neighbors together by providing streets and squares of comfortable scale where people can gather.
• Forming authentic communities and integrating age and economic classes by providing a full range of housing types and work places.
• Facilitating democracy and a balanced society by providing suitable civic and public buildings and spaces.

Contents 1 Loreto Bay Initiatives 1.1 Energy 1.2 Construction 1.3 Water 1.4 Other Sustainable Initiatives 2 External Links

[edit] Loreto Bay Initiatives

Being a sustainable community involves a number of values-based principles. In Loreto Bay the initiatives to support these principles are:

[edit] Energy

• Renewable Energy sources will be the primary source of all energy needs in Loreto Bay. A 20 Megawatt wind electrical facility will be operational in 2008, and will offset over 30,000 tons of CO2 per year (otherwise generated by diesel in BCS). 30,000 tons is equivalent to the emissions of 4500 cars per year. Solar Hot Water for the homes, commercial buildings and swimming pools reduces the energy requirement by 50% to 80%. Solar Photo Voltaic will be used for powering pool and fountain pumps.

• Transportation Energy Conservation principles mean that automobiles will be prohibited although the village centers have roadway connections. Shuttle vehicles will connect village to each other as well as to the Town Center and the Historic center of Loreto. To live or stay at Loreto Bay you will not need a car. Small electric vehicles are encouraged.

• Passive Solar Design includes the use of Perform Wall and Earth block walls to create [thermal mass]], absorb heat and transmit temperature changes very slowly, so that the building stays cooler in summer and warmer in winter, with less air conditioning and heating required. The design of the homes, with inner courtyards, fountains, and dome vented kitchen cupolas, contributes to natural cooling. Warm air passes over the exterior walls, is cooled by the courtyard fountain and plant life, and then is drawn through the house and out the cupola in a continuous flow.

• Energy Saving Appliances will save up to 25% in energy use.

[edit] Construction

• Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and Mexico Green Building Council (GBC) The Loreto Bay Company is a founding member and sponsor of the Mexico GBC. Loreto Bay provides complete access to its process and development to provide the GBC with a test for Green Building practices in Mexico. The Beach Club and Spa will be built to LEED Platinum standards, with the highest possible energy efficient ratings, based on USGBC standards. Also planned is a LEED ND (Neighborhood) pilot project.

• Perform Wall panels, which are made from concrete and recycle Styrofoam, are used in conjunction with Earth Block to build homes. This light-weight building material reduces the amount of concrete blocks required, and has a very high insulation factor, thereby serving to conserve energy needed for heating and cooling.

• Local Earth Block Production greatly reduces the need to transport materials from afar, thereby reducing harmful vehicle emissions. The embodied energy in compressed earth blocks is at the lowest practical level for any locally suitable building material.

• Low VOC Paints and Finishes means that volatile organic compounds (VOC's) emitted from paints and other finishes enter the air and oxidize to become CO2. By using low or no VOC finishes, CO2 created by the building process is reduced.

• Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) Certified Wood means that the wood has been harvested in an environmentally sound manner, ensuring a continuously renewed forest (no clear-cutting). Forests are important sequesters of carbon. The criteria also include products made from rapidly renewable crops, such as wheatboard or strawboard panels.

[edit] Water

Loreto Bay is planned to be a water independent development, not relying or drawing upon Loreto’s water source from the San Juan Basin. This plan includes water harvesting, production and conservation.

• Harvesting – This involves restoring the two existing watersheds on Loreto Bay designated land by building small check dams to slow down flow in strategic channels where rainwater gathers. This allows more of the rainfall that occurs during late summer and autumn to be captured and absorbed into the ground, recharging aquifers rather than be lost as run-off to the sea. But this will take many years, perhaps generations, to effectively produce significant water results. In the meantime, desalination will be required.

• Production – Desalination will be used to produce up to 1.5 million gallons per day of potable water. The system of choice, recommended by the Pacific Institute, the California Coastal Commission and the Monterrey Bay Marine Sanctuary, is an environmentally benign reverse osmosis technology which uses deep intake wells for source water and injection wells for brine discharge.

• Conservation – Fresh water irrigation will be minimized through the use of saline tolerant plants on the golf course (ie. paspalum grass) and in the landscaping. The storm water plan will direct rainwater drainage for maximum irrigation potential and estuary flushing. Reclaimed waste water will be used for irrigation and toilet flushing. Water smart appliances and fixtures will be installed in the homes and commercial buildings.

[edit] Other Sustainable Initiatives

• Composting of organic waste greatly reduces the production of methane from rotting garbage in local landfills.

• Increased Vegetation through watershed restoration, estuary restoration and indigenous landscaping serves to sequester carbon. In the villages, extensive use of vines shield south and west facing walls adding beauty and lowering cooling needs.

• Non-nitrogenous Fertilizers are used in the agriculture program because they do not create the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. Only extremely low dosages of urea are used for landscaping. Compost provides the primary nutrient enhancement for plantings.

• Locally Grown Food diminishes the need for transporting food from afar. A permaculture-based agricultural center specializes in growing crops that tolerate brackish, saline water.

[edit] External Links

• Loreto Bay website