At their January 21, 2014 meeting, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, on a 3/2 vote, took a big step forward in making it possible for local homeowners and business owners to access special property assessed financing to pay for home improvements that address energy efficiency and water conservation, through the Property Assessed Clean Energy (or PACE) program.
Before moving forward, the Board spent more than a year considering PACE, established an ad-hoc Board committee to research the issue, received letters of support from, among others, the City of Fort Bragg, and received public comment.
Mendocino County’s PACE program is now expected to be in place by late spring or early summer 2014. Thus, PACE financing for Mendocino County homeowners will come in the midst of an epic drought, and at a time of growing concern nationwide about the environmental and economic impacts of dependence on fossil fuels.