BERTHOUD — A 25-acre solar farm may soon dominate the landscape in this Larimer County community, where wheat and barley used to grow.
In fact, developers Scott Sarbaugh and Richard McCabe see a day when the solar arrays will create a net-zero energy community in their adjacent 190-acre PrairieStar development.
“Our vision is to market this to people who want to be in a virtually self-sustaining community,” Sarbaugh said.
He and McCabe have been working with the town of Berthoud for nearly seven years to develop PrairieStar.
Besides the resident-owned solar farm, PrairieStar’s plans also call for a 7-acre community garden and an irrigation system using nonpotable water.
Located at the intersection of U.S. 287 and County Road 17 in south Larimer County, the development will include 854 residential units of more than 20 housing types, senior apartments, parks and open space, at least one school, a research and development facility, retail and business outlets and an equestrian center.
There will also be a 10,000-square-foot “energy center,” where motorists can gas up or plug in their electric cars for recharging.
“We truly want everything for everybody,” McCabe said.
The size and scope of the development — which was designed by urban planner Peter Calthorpe — is something Colorado has never seen before, much less this town of 5,000, said Berthoud Mayor Tom Patterson.
“It could fundamentally change this town and the surrounding area,” Patterson said.
The Town Trustees in October unanimously approved the development plan for PrairieStar. This month, four special districts were formed to finance public improvements for the development.
So far, PrairieStar has not needed much marketing, Sarbaugh said. “If you are building 20 types of housing, there is something for everyone.”
Prices for PrairieStar’s mix of condos, townhomes, cottages and larger single-family homes will range from the upper $100,000s to $600,000.
“And you add the sustainability factor, and that’s another huge market,” Sarbaugh said.
The array of photovoltaic panels — with a 4-megawatt capacity — would collect solar energy and direct it to the development, producing as much electricity as it uses, the developers said.
Sarbaugh and McCabe want to form a special municipal energy district for PrairieStar and offer it to homeowners as an investment. Sarbaugh says an opening for that arrangement developed in 2007, when the franchise agreement between Berthoud and Xcel Energy and the Poudre Valley REA expired.
However, Xcel has said that PrairieStar is still in its service area and that a special energy district is probably not legal.
Sarbaugh said he is talking with both utilities to offer secondary energy services for the development, which he concedes will take years to finally build out.
“We don’t know how we are going to there,” he said, “but we will eventually get there.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
