Last month the Town of Berthoud, Colorado approved a mixed use development known as PrairieStar. The development is anticipated to contain residential housing, a school, a research and development facility, an equestrian center, retail and business components, and, most notably, a 25 acre solar farm. Developers of the project, Scott Sarbaugh and partner Richard McCabe, anticipate that PrairieStar will ultimately reach “net-zero energy consumption” status as a result of the large solar component. 
In addition to the solar farm, the PrairieStar development includes many additional green touches including a community garden, an irrigation system using nonpotable water and an energy center for recharging electric cars.
In negotiations between developers and local municipalities, this type of sustainable (and sustainably marketed) project is likely to shed a different light on the developer. Not only does it appear that sustainable developments like PrairieStar are particularly marketable to the end user, but in the current green climate they should be appealing to the local jurisdiction for entitlement approval.
Photo by Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Flickr)