Bay Harbor Islands officials approved initial agreements to form a new Property Accessed Clean Energy district at a town council meeting this month.

A PACE program allows homeowners and business owners to get financing to update their homes and businesses making them more energy-efficient and safer.

“For some people this is the best choice between retro-fitting their home and not at all,” said Vice Mayor Jordan Leonard, who proposed the measure.

Once Bay Harbor Islands is joined by another municipality it will be part of the second PACE district in Miami-Dade, the Clean Energy Coastal Corridor.

Town officials deferred naming Y Green Energy Fund the administrator of the program to February’s council meeting. Y Green is the administrator of Miami-Dade’s first PACE district in South Miami-Dade County.

Officials are hopeful this new district will be as successful as the first that has yet to officially launch.

“Already there has been $9 million of applications walked in the door without any advertising that the program has opened its doors that is a very clear demand,” said Steven Alexander a consultant for Y Green.

The program provides 100 percent financing for those that qualify at a 6.957 percent interest rate. The loan is then repaid through assessments put on the individual property tax bill.

In other business:

In a public hearing earlier that evening the town council approved two new development projects despite resident appeals of the Planning and Zoning Board decisions.

The development projects approved were the Ivory Condominium Apartments at 9261 East Bay Harbor Island and the Stuart House Condominium Apartments at 1025-1035 92nd Street.

Both developments were appealed based on their heights, lack of a sufficient breezeway, lack of harmony with the town and the need for the planned use of transferred developmental rights.