{"id":58097,"date":"2025-05-28T20:58:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T20:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.httppropeterrapropertynews.com\/wp\/2025\/05\/28\/north-texas-governments-step-into-sustainability-void\/"},"modified":"2025-05-28T20:58:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T20:58:04","slug":"north-texas-governments-step-into-sustainability-void","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.httppropeterrapropertynews.com\/wp\/2025\/05\/28\/north-texas-governments-step-into-sustainability-void\/","title":{"rendered":"North Texas Governments Step Into Sustainability Void"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"North<\/div>

As the new administration moves to step away\u00a0from sustainable building programs, local government is stepping up with a\u00a0new program to extend the reach of the state’s Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy program throughout the North Texas region.<\/p>\n

The North Central Texas Council of Governments’ new program will help property owners fund energy efficiency, renewable energy and water conservation projects.
\nThe\u00a0North Central Texas Council of Governments\u00a0has established its own C-PACE program to\u00a0oversee the 16 counties and 169 cities in its service area. The Council of Governments chose C-PACE facilitators\u00a0Texas PACE Authority\u00a0and\u00a0Lone Star PACE\u00a0as co-administrators for its program.
\nC-PACE helps property owners fund energy efficiency, renewable energy and water conservation projects using private dollars. The long-term, fixed-rate financing can be applied before, during or after construction for a variety of projects.
\nWhile the region\u2019s big four counties of Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant each have their own C-PACE programs, as do cities\u00a0like Dallas and Fort Worth, the Council of Governments was tasked with expanding the financing program thanks to a grant it received from the State Energy Conservation Office, NCTCOG Environment & Development Director Susan Alvarez said.
\n\u201cIt provides extremely low-cost loans for both energy and water conservation, both of which I think most businesses,\u00a0most entities,\u00a0would relish,\u201d Alvarez said of the financing program. \u201cThe cost of power is going up, and increasingly we’re more aware of the need for more water conservation, so this provides the financial mechanism to make that happen.\u201d
\nAs part of the rollout, Alvarez said the Council of Governments will develop standard contracts for its administrators to use. She expects counties and municipalities will be able to opt into the program through a simple interlocal agreement with the agency.\u00a0
\n\u201cWe’re a \u2026 pretty good sized area, so with the anticipated market for these services, we felt like it was beneficial to have two vendors under contract to be able to offer these services,\u201d Alvarez said.
\nAlvarez\u00a0cited the track records of the two groups chosen to administer the program, which each expressed excitement at getting to work with the regional organization.
\n\u201cWhen a Council of Government steps in and says, \u2018We’ll oversee it,\u2019 \u2026 it adds trust and credibility and, most importantly, uniformity to the program,\u201d Texas PACE Authority President Charlene Heydinger said.\u00a0
\nThe added reach of the Council of Governments should benefit both administrator organizations\u00a0since Lone Star PACE President Lee McCormick said the biggest hurdle\u00a0it faces is educating people that the financing is available and explaining how it works.
\n\u201cPartnering with the North Central Texas COG is going to really help accelerate the outreach and adoption of PACE in some of the regions that don’t currently have it,\u201d McCormick said.
\nWhile all the details are still being ironed out, Alvarez said she envisions a program similar to the one set up by the Alamo Area Council of Governments in the San Antonio metro, and she has picked their brains for inspiration.\u00a0
\nTexas PACE Authority also works with that group, and Heydinger said the new North Texas program will be a great new tool for the local agency.
\n\u201cNCTCOG does a lot with clean air, water resources, energy efficiency, so this program is a great fit for the regional goals that a lot of the staff work on,\u201d Heydinger said.
\nCities and counties that already have C-PACE programs will have some flexibility in how they proceed once the new program is up and running.
\n\u201cIf they have a program, they can either keep it or they can opt into the COG\u2019s program, whichever they prefer,\u201d McCormick said. \u201cSo it really gives them some options either way.\u201d
\nThe Trump administration has\u00a0dismantled much of the so-called \u201cGreen New Deal,\u201d\u00a0deprioritizing clean energy and sustainable building programs like the\u00a0Green and Resilient Retrofit Fund. But 40 statewide C-PACE programs are going strong, offering another option for\u00a0sustainable building upgrades outside the reach of the federal government.
\nAlvarez said she anticipates working with the Council of Governments’ economic development staff to help spread the word about\u00a0the program. She hopes to get things up and running soon as the agency has already received calls asking about the financing option.
\n\u201cI would really like to get it fully in place before the end of our state grant, which is the end of August,\u201d Alvarez said. \u201cIn agency time, that’s pretty quick.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the new administration moves to step away\u00a0from sustainable building programs, local government is stepping up with a\u00a0new program to extend the reach of the state’s Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy program throughout the North Texas region. The North Central Texas Council of Governments’ new program will help property owners fund energy efficiency, renewable energy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56570,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[723,731,736],"tags":[],"country":[],"region":[680],"property_type":[711,699,733],"class_list":{"0":"post-58097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-construction-renovation","8":"category-development-news","9":"category-office-space","10":"region-north-america","11":"property_type-construction-renovation","12":"property_type-development-news","13":"property_type-office-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.httppropeterrapropertynews.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.httppropeterrapropertynews.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.httppropeterrapropertynews.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.httppropeterrapropertynews.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.httppropeterrapropertynews.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.httppropeterrapropertynews.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.httppropeterrapropertynews.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.httppropeterrapropertynews.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.httppropeterrapropertynews.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.httppropeterrapropertynews.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58097"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.httppropeterrapropertynews.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=58097"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.httppropeterrapropertynews.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=58097"},{"taxonomy":"property_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.httppropeterrapropertynews.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/property_type?post=58097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}