Tiniest apartments

(AP) -- San Francisco officials are weighing changes to the city's building code that would allow construction of among the tiniest apartments in the country.

The Los Angeles Timesreports that the city's supervisors are set to vote on Tuesday on a proposal that would permit apartments as small as 220 square feet, including a kitchen, bathroom and closet.

Current regulations require the living room alone to be that size.

Proponents say the smaller apartments would provide a cheaper option for the city's many single residents for whom rent has become unaffordable.

But critics counter that the units wouldn't help families and could boost population density, straining public transit and other city services.
Casino road

(AP) -- A Native American tribe planning to build a Las Vegas-style casino about 50 miles north of San Francisco will take on the full cost of widening the access road to its casino resort.

Rohnert Park City Manager Gabe Gonzalez says under a tentative agreement with the city and county, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria will pay $10 million to widen the road to the planned Sonoma County casino.

The tribe purchased a 254-acre property to build a 3,000-slot-machine, 317,750-square-foot casino, which is expected to open in 2013.

The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa reports that the tribe secured $850 million in financing last month.
Online solar

(AP) -- Honolulu says its new online permitting system for solar panels has gotten off to a good start.

The city said Friday more than 300 permits have been issued in a little more than a day since the self service system launched the day before.

The system allows licensed contractors to go to the Department of Planning and Permitting's website. There, the contractors may issue their own permits for most solar panel installations at single-family residences.

The department started the program because it was overwhelmed by solar panel permit applications.

Department Director David Tanoue says the new system will lessen the burden on staff. He says they may now be able to devote more time to customers who often have very complex projects to review.
Wind moratorium

(AP) -- Voters in the western Maine town of Canton have rejected a proposal that would have placed a six-month moratorium on wind-power developments.

Residents on Saturday defeated the moratorium proposal by a vote of 37 to 24.

Patriot Renewables LLC of Quincy, Mass., wants to erect eight turbines on Canton Mountain with a capacity of 22 megawatts of electricity.

Moratorium supporters said a six-month hold would give the town time to write regulations governing wind-power developments.

Opponents said the town stands to benefit from a wind farm. Town officials have said the development could cut property taxes sharply.
Animal terminal

(AP) -- John F. Kennedy International Airport is going to the dogs. And cats. And probably birds and horses.

A new $32 million facility that will provide kenneling, grooming and other services for about 70,000 domestic and wild animals a year is going to be built at the airport.

ARK Development LLC will use Building 78 at JFK, which is currently empty, as well as 14.4 acres of the grounds for the project. It will have kenneling and grooming services for dogs and cats, as well as a quarantine area for horses, an aviary, lawn space, a veterinary hospital and rehabilitation center.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates JFK, approved the plans on Thursday.

Officials said the project would create 190 jobs, and create $50.5 million in economic activity during a 20-year lease period. The Port Authority said it expected to get more than $108 million in rent over that time frame.

ARK is expected to spend $30 million for a main center which will be 108,650 square feet. Another $2 million will go toward a cargo handling facility that will be 63,515 square feet.
Low-interest loans

(AP) -- Hundreds of Minot, N.D., residents have tapped into a low-interest loan fund, set up by the Legislature through the state-owned Bank of North Dakota, to help finance repairs -- and give flood victims an incentive to stay in town.

But the program is coming to an end. The deadline for loan applications is Sept. 30, with more than $10 million still available.

The fund offers borrowers a $30,000 loan at 1 percent interest, with no payments needed for two years and up to 20 years to pay it back.

There are no income limits, and no collateral is required. Homeowners only need to promise to spend most of the money rebuilding their dwellings.

The bank has approved more than 1,400 applications for $39.6 million in loans, according to Eric Hardmeyer, president. The Legislature authorized up to $50 million.

The pace of applications has slowed in recent months, Hardmeyer said Friday. He believes most people who were intent on rebuilding have already put in their requests, particularly in Minot, where the scope of a planned new flood-protection project has become clearer, giving residents a better idea of whether reconstruction would be worth the investment.
Old Republic return

(Bloomberg) -- Old Republic International Corp., the firm that stopped backing new home loans, said its mortgage insurance unit may return to profit in 2014 as it collects premiums and pays claims on policies sold in prior years.

“We're reasonably confident that the worst is over and that the MI segment in runoff will, more likely than not, turn the corner into profitability sometime in 2014,” Aldo Zucaro, chief executive officer of Chicago-based Old Republic, said Monday.
First solar in Indi

(Bloomberg) -- Veer Energy & Infrastructure Ltd., a Mumbai-based wind-power developer, bought solar panels for its first project in India from U.S.-based New Millennium Solar Equipment Corp.

Veer plans to install 400 thin-film panels of 58.5 watts each for a rooftop project in the Sanand district of the western Indian state of Gujarat, the company said Monday.

It will be Veer Energy's first solar installation. The company, which plans to pursue larger megawatt-sized projects after this pilot, expects to earn an additional 20 million rupees ($374,111) profit in the year to March 31, 2014, from its solar business, it said.

New Millennium Solar was acquired in September 2011 by Sunlogics Inc., a Rochester Hills, Mich.-based company backed by General Motors Co. Sunlogics has changed its name to ViSole Energy Inc., according to its website.
Finance firm jumps

(Bloomberg) -- Housing Finance Ltd., Kenya's only publicly traded mortgage lender, jumped the most in more than three weeks after saying it would begin selling 3 billion shillings ($35.3 million) of bonds on Oct. 1 to build new homes.

The bond sale will close Oct. 12, Housing Finance said Monday. The company raised 7 billion shillings from a 2010 bond issue, and this is the second portion of the 10 billion shillings it has regulatory approval to sell.

About 200,000 housing units are required annually in Kenya's urban areas and only about 50,000 units are developed every year, Managing Director Frank Ireri said in the statement, citing Finance Ministry data.

“These bonds could be a huge step from the company because they are coming into a segment which no one is touching, the middle- and low-income housing segment,” Rufus Mwanyasi, head trader at Nairobi-based Canaan Capital, said in a phone interview Monday.

In April, the European Investment Bank agreed to loan Housing Finance 2.2 billion shillings and London-based Ghana International Bank loaned it $10 million in June.
Water consumption

(Bloomberg) -- German water consumption has dropped to its lowest value in more than two decades even as investments from utilities increase, the BDEW utility lobby said.

Private consumers and companies consumed 4.45 billion cubic meters of water in 2011, a 26 percent drop compared with 1990, the lobby said Monday. Each German consumes about 121 liters (32 gallons) of water a day, down from 147 liters in 1990, BDEW said.

Investments from water utilities are expected to reach 2.5 billion euros ($3.2 billion) in 2012 from 2.3 billion euros last year, BDEW said. They'll be about 2.4 billion euros in 2013 and 2014, it said.