Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Cpace topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Madison County board directs staff to draft ordinance enabling CPACE financing
Summary
After a presentation from the Virginia PACE Authority, the Board voted to direct staff to draft a local ordinance to enable Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (CPACE) financing, with guidance to avoid county administrative costs or financial liability.
The Madison County Board of Supervisors voted to direct county staff to prepare an ordinance to enable Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (CPACE) financing after a presentation by Abby Johnson, executive director of the Virginia PACE Authority.
Johnson told the board the Authority administers the statewide CPACE program and works with property owners, lenders and local governments to finance energy-efficiency, renewable-energy and resilience measures. "We are the administrators for, the, commercial property assessed clean energy program for the state of Virginia," she said, describing examples from hotels to assisted-living and downtown redevelopment projects.
Johnson said CPACE loans are structured as voluntary special assessments secured against property, and that in Virginia the common model is for CPACE lenders to bill and service the payments rather than local treasurers. She noted the program has completed large transactions and grows in participation: "we closed 3 large transactions at the end of the year, so we're now at about 125,000,000," she said. She also discussed practical lender thresholds and said while statutory minimums may be low, many lenders prefer deals larger than the smallest allowable size.
Board members raised questions about administration, enforcement and default risk. County counsel explained the county would not be required to bill and collect unless the board opted to do so. Supervisor Jim Jewett moved that staff draft an ordinance with two guiding principles: that the ordinance not impose administrative costs on the county and that it not create financial liability for the county. The motion was seconded and approved by voice vote.
The board instructed county staff and counsel to prepare the necessary documents and bring a draft ordinance and public-hearing schedule back to the board. Staff and supervisors discussed timing and asked that a draft be prepared in time to consider a public hearing at an upcoming meeting.
The action does not itself adopt an ordinance or enable lending; it only directs staff to draft enabling documents and proceed through the public hearing and ordinance-adoption process. If adopted later, CPACE participation would allow private lenders to provide long-term, property-secured financing for eligible projects in Madison County.
