A longtime Windward resident wants Kailua to become the first community in the nation to integrate alternative transportation and renewable energy-using small electric vehicles, "solar orchards" and a community barn-building concept from America's past.

Tony Locricchio of Maunawili, owner of Renewable Electronics Transportation International, wants to show the nation that it can make the transition to a more cost-effective mode of transportation with the least amount of hassle and notable savings.

And do it now.

"All of this is existing technology," Locricchio said. "There is no waiting until we produce the technology down the road."

The plans call for a comprehensive system involving the use of small electric vehicles, a ferry to transport these vehicles on the freeway, a local assembly plant for these vehicles, solarization of neighborhoods, fleet vehicles for community use and quick-change stations offering battery packs that would power electric vehicles as well as homes.

The chance of getting the proposal off the ground will depend on federal funding and support, and Locricchio said he hadn't even thought of promoting the idea until Barack Obama was elected president and promised to change national energy policy.

He believes his system could pay big dividends for people who use it.

"We think the savings could be 60 percent of a family's transportation cost," Locricchio said. "It would change disposable income at a time when there's going to be radical changes to income. We've reached a point historically where people are not going to have a lot of choices. They're going to have to change, so we've designed it so it's feasible and without pain."

He estimates the pilot project will cost about $1.2 million.

He'll take his proposal to the Kailua Neighborhood Board meeting tonight and plans to lecture about his project at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles on Jan. 27.

He has persuaded two U.S. senators, not from Hawai'i, to take his proposal to the Obama administration. He said he's still trying to persuade his own congressmen to support the plan.

Donna Wong, head of the Kailua Neighborhood Board's Planning, Zoning and Environmental Committee, said Locricchio presented his plan to her committee and that she was impressed. But she has reservations about the proposal.

"Some of his ideas may be too futuristic, but others really show merit and might be a really good fit for Kailua," Wong said. "I like his idea about communities working together to get as many people as possible on solar."

The electric cars would be one-person vehicles that would be transported on freeways by Land Integrated Ferry Transporter that moves about 40 at a time. The problem of how to get somewhere after getting off a mass-transit line would be solved because drivers could simply drive off the transporter and to their final destination. And four of the vehicles fit in a standard parking stall, Locricchio noted.

A community fleet of vehicles could also cut costs and includes a method for the big automobile companies to pay back government for any federal bailout, he said.

General Motors, Ford and Chrysler would supply a fleet that includes SUVs, trucks and sedans for residents to use for such activities as soccer events, picnic or family outings.

Locricchio, an attorney with about 20 years of experience developing electric vehicles, wants to run a pilot project in Kailua that would include an assembly plant for the electric vehicles and quick-change battery stations

His proposal calls for "barn-raising" projects in which neighbors help each other install solar systems and earn sweat equity toward their own solar system. Neighborhoods would apply for federal funds and people would pay back the loans with money they saved by not using the public utility, Locricchio said.

There would also be "solar orchards" that could be installed along property lines, in parks, along roads and on school rooftops. The "fruit" of the orchard would be charged, 24-pound battery packs.