diff --git a/core/includes/bootstrap.inc b/core/includes/bootstrap.inc
index 6abe08a..d380f22 100644
--- a/core/includes/bootstrap.inc
+++ b/core/includes/bootstrap.inc
@@ -603,8 +603,10 @@ function drupal_settings_initialize() {
   global $databases, $cookie_domain, $conf, $installed_profile, $update_free_access, $db_url, $db_prefix, $drupal_hash_salt, $is_https, $base_secure_url, $base_insecure_url, $config_directory_name, $config_signature_key;
   $conf = array();
 
-  if (file_exists(DRUPAL_ROOT . '/' . conf_path() . '/settings.php')) {
-    include_once DRUPAL_ROOT . '/' . conf_path() . '/settings.php';
+  // Make conf_path() available as local variable in settings.php.
+  $conf_path = conf_path();
+  if (file_exists(DRUPAL_ROOT . '/' . $conf_path . '/settings.php')) {
+    include_once DRUPAL_ROOT . '/' . $conf_path . '/settings.php';
   }
   $is_https = isset($_SERVER['HTTPS']) && strtolower($_SERVER['HTTPS']) == 'on';
 
diff --git a/sites/default/default.settings.php b/sites/default/default.settings.php
index 4f3fab8..96c687b 100755
--- a/sites/default/default.settings.php
+++ b/sites/default/default.settings.php
@@ -534,3 +534,19 @@ $conf['404_fast_html'] = '<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><titl
  * Remove the leading hash signs to disable.
  */
 # $conf['allow_authorize_operations'] = FALSE;
+
+/**
+ * Load local development override configuration, if existent.
+ *
+ * Use settings.local.php to override variables on secondary (staging,
+ * development, etc) installations of this site. Typically used to disable
+ * caching, JavaScript/CSS compression, re-routing of outgoing e-mails, and
+ * other things that should not happen on development and testing sites.
+ *
+ * Keep this code block at the end of this file to take full effect.
+ */
+/*
+if (file_exists(DRUPAL_ROOT . '/' . $conf_path . '/settings.local.php')) {
+  include DRUPAL_ROOT . '/' . $conf_path . '/settings.local.php';
+}
+*/
