Habitat for Humanity-NYC recently celebrated the newest affordable housing initiative with homeowners in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn.

New York’s City Department of Housing Preservation and Development sold four acres of land to Habitat-NYC for $4 to begin a housing project in 2006.

“These new homes represent the best of New York City—people from every walk of life coming together to create decent, affordable homes for families who need a hand up,” said Josh Lockwood, executive director of Habitat for Humanity-NYC.

The$2.5 million project was financed by NYS Division of Housing and Community Renewal Home Program, the Starr Foundation, the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office, the Independence Community Foundation and the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York. Gifts were also collected from corporations, foundations and individuals.

The new complex is three, three-story homes consisting of more than 10,000 sq ft. The nine units are a mixture of two and three bedroom residences.

Architect Scott Groom of Kossar & Gary Architects wanted to bring awareness to the community with his design for Habitat for Humanity. “Affordable housing and green developments can go hand-in-hand. Bedford-Stuyvesant went through a very dark period and now we see it coming back to life.”

To qualify, homeowners must be first-time buyers who earn between 50% and 80% of the city’s area median income—$35,450 to $56,700 for a family of four—and commit at least 300 hours per adult in building their homes. Families must also pay more than half their income in rent or live in over-crowded or substandard housing to be selected.

“It’s a thrill to see Habitat-NYC once again helping Brooklyn families reach the promised land of home ownership—this time in vibrant Bedford-Stuyvesant,” said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. “Of course, the ‘sweat equity’ has come from the new owners and the thousands of volunteers who rolled up their sleeves and took up the hammer to get the job done, building energy-efficient, ‘green’ homes to ensure a future that’s not only affordable but sustainable.”

The “green” condominiums will sell for between $71,000 and $144,900 and because of Energy Star appliances, lighting fixtures, high-efficiency boilers, energy-efficient windows and sustainable construction materials, homeowners will save an approximately 30% on their utility bills.

“With energy costs soaring, building green helps our low-income homeowners save money on utility bills so they can afford other necessities,” explained Lockwood. “These environmentally friendly, healthy homes are good for our families, good for our community and good for our planet.”

Microturbines are low emission turbine generators that produce electricity and heat for a building and provide energy for other building operations by recovering and reusing the heat from their own combustion process.

“Microturbines allow buildings to generate a portion of their own electricity in a clean and efficient manner. Owners who take advantage of microturbine technology will help distribute clean power generation throughout the five boroughs, which will in part address the clean energy needs of New York's dense urban community,” said Department of Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster.

The rule is the first in the country, setting the national standard for efficient turbine generators. “The market for microturbines has surged in the last several years, but has been held back due to their absence from the 1968 New York City Building Code,” said Lancaster.

Under the new regulation, microturbine systems can be installed in residential and commercial buildings in various locations, including weatherproof enclosures at grade or on roofs and within mechanical rooms built with 2-hour fire-resistance rated walls, according to Mayor Bloomberg. Only those approved by nationally recognized testing laboratories can be installed.

Buildings in New York City generate 79% of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Buildings Department. Traditionally, power plants supply most of the energy in NYC and microturbine systems can provide an energy-efficient supplement since they supply on-site power generation. For a given amount of fossil fuel, microturbines generate 70-80% of its usable energy, whereas only 30-35% of the energy produced by power plants is usable, also according to the Buildings Department.

“This rule will help us to meet our commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions citywide by 30% between now and 2030, and it will help spur the real estate and development communities to build more efficient, greener projects moving forward,” said Mayor Bloomberg.

Brownfields can often pose challenges to developers, as they hinder the use of land, sometimes in prime locations, and create a more costly project. But while the struggles of developers are widely heard in the real estate industry, the communities that are home to brownfields and the people that must live near them struggle just as much as developers, albeit less in the public eye.

When a developer takes on the task of remediating a brownfield site, not only does the land become usable, creating a viable project site for the developer, but the community often benefits from new economic growth, an improved streetscape, and healthier spaces to live and work.

“The single most important benefit of brownfield redevelopment is the rejuvenation of communities. The economic and financial benefits are great, but oftentimes communities have been literally ripped apart by the vacant land,” said Barry Skoultchi, president of the Whitman Companies, a New Jersey-based environmental consulting firm that recently completed a remediation project at a brownfield site in Butler, New Jersey.

The six and a half-acre site in Butler was once home to a rubber reclamation plant, but a fire on the site in 1967 left the land vacant and unusable without treatment. The project team found traces of lead in the groundwater, and petroleum-related contamination in the soil, explained Skoultchi.

After remediation, not only did the developer, Heartstone Development, gain $2 million in state incentives through the New Jersey Brownfield and Contaminated Site Remediation Act, but the land is now the site of a future mixed-use residential and retail community, bringing the heart of downtown Butler back into motion.

“The project is also serving as a conduit for a waterwalk planned for the town, where the Pequanock River runs along the edge of the project site in Butler,” explained Skoutchi. The River Walk will include a public park, paths, benches, and a greenway, all allowing public access to a redeveloped waterfront. Support for the project has been high.

“We are just thrilled with this project,” Butler Mayor Joseph Heywang said. “This is just a perfect example of agencies and private companies working together to get the job done and get it done right. It’s something I wish would happen more often, but I’m happy that it happened here,” he said.

In addition to the benefit to communities, redeveloping a brownfield site can also help a developer earn needed LEED points if they are seeking certification. Brownfield redevelopment falls under the Sustainable Sites category of the LEED rating system, and can earn a project a point for salvaging damaged land and avoiding development of untouched, undeveloped land. More states and municipalities are also stepping up and offering valuable incentives to developers and builders to redevelop a brownfield, making remediation a win-win situation for all parties—the developer, the local community and the environment.