But enthusiasm for solar energy ebbed in the '80s after
President Reagan ended tax credits for alternative power
sources. Judy Corbett, who had been appointed to California's
Solar Cal Council by Governor Jerry Brown, suddenly found
herself without a job when his successor, George Deukmejian,
pulled the plug on the agency. So she set up a nonprofit
organization called the Local Government Commission to help
educate officials on ways to deal with social and environmental
problems. "It was clear to me that without mayors and city
council managers and supervisors undertaking the lead in making
things change, Village Homes could never be duplicated," she
says.
Village Homes was one of the inspirations for the Coffee Creek
community that green architect William McDonough is designing in
Indiana, but other developers have been slow to pick up on the
Corbetts' ideas. "The problem isn't that the public doesn't want
it," Corbett says. "They come here and see what we've done and
say, 'Why isn't everybody doing this?' But developers are so
closed-minded. They continue to build thousands of places where
you can't get around without a car."
Village Homes isn't perfect. The Corbetts say that if they could
do it over again, they'd build garages rather than open
carports, which have filled up over the years with unsightly
junk. Corbett would also put solariums--solar-heated rooms--in
every house, and his wife would like to use photovoltaic roofing
shingles to generate electricity from sunlight.
But what Corbett would most like to do is put his ideas into
practice on a larger scale, especially since the fight against
suburban sprawl has moved to the top of the nation's
environmental agenda. His next goal is to create a combined
residential, retail and office development south of Davis that
would feature natural drainage and on-site food production. More
than two decades after breaking ground for Village Homes, he's
back in front of those persnickety city officials, seeking the
green light to build. "At this point in my life," he says, "I
don't want to do anything if it's not on the cutting edge." It
may be lonely out there, but he doesn't mind.
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