As
a vegetarian and environmentalist who is deeply committed (which most
of us reading this surely are), you probably feel frustrated about
how little you can actually do to make a positive difference in today's
world. You eat humanely. You donate what you can to compatible charities.
You send e-mail protests, perhaps even walk in marches or such. Yet
in the end, there is still this nagging sense of how little these
efforts actually accomplish. I know my family and I often feel like
that and most of our friends do, too.
But
what if there were a way you could take your largest single expense
— your monthly mortgage payment — and use it, month after
month, to make a major, positive impact on the world immediately around
you? There is. It's called an "eco-community."
The
concept is simple enough: Find a beautiful piece of property you'd
like to save from real estate developers to keep it "green" forever.
Then gather together a group of other like-minded vegetarians. Maybe
you already know them, but maybe you'll have to advertise or try finding
them in other ways. Next, buy this parcel and finally arrange to build
only enough dwellings on a small "footprint" of that property to house
the investors needed to purchase the land.
That's
where the "eco" part of eco-community comes in: The maximum
number of dwellings to be built there is determined mainly by the
cost of the land. The lower the price of the land, the fewer the
dwellings will be built on it. Most large-scale builders and real
estate developers try to maximize their profits by building as many
dwellings per acre as local law will allow. But with eco-communities,
one is much more likely to think in terms of acres per dwelling.
A ratio of about one dwelling per every four or five acres of land
you save is a good goal to strive for.
An
"eco-developer" — a socially-conscious builder — will then
build enough dwellings to get a reasonable profit for his or her labors.
S/he will also charge an additional fee for developing the building
site(s). But there is where it ends. It is the way custom or "one-off"
builders normally work, anyway. The rest of the land remains free
of buildings and is put to other use, such as organic farming or sustainable
forestry.
Typically,
such a builder-developer would live in the same locality — hopefully
even in the same neighborhood — as the eco-community s/he is
developing. This tends to produce a sense of personal responsibility
that goes into the job. Most slash-and-burn big-scale developers,
however, have little interest in the communities and general areas
in which they build, except insofar as it benefits their bottom line.
So "human scale" development will almost certainly be part of the
eco-community process.
Depending
on how many or how few people you find to share this cost with you
— and how large the parcel of land actually is — the task
can be easy or daunting. But it will always be a worthwhile project.
And you and your new neighbors, more than anyone else, will benefit
directly from your collective efforts. It is right there, in your
face, all the time.
Yes,
you will probably have to sell your present home along the way. And
you'll need to establish a relationship with a builder and probably
an architect. But if you've been thinking about selling or moving
anyway — which most of us do about every seven years — this
may be a good project for you to consider. And of course, it will
require money. Probably more money than you can come up with, unless
you're either rich or well-connected ... or so it might seem.
Yet
financing for the project may be easier than you think. While banks
may put undue restrictions on this undertaking, the owner of that
large tract of land you want to save may actually be eager to provide
the financing to make this deal happen. Especially after you explain
the details of your project. After all, Farmer Brown, the land's hypothetical
owner, may have little to lose, especially if the land has been in
his family for several generations and is probably now owned free
and clear. The actual details of this will need to be finalized by
lawyers and accountants, but in the big picture, private financing
can be great for all the parties concerned.
One
key to this may be to let Farmer Brown also keep part of the land
— the part where his home now sits. In short, make him a neighbor
and partner in your new project. This may be the perfect "grease"
to make the deal happen. And letting him hold the first mortgage on
the "land" portion of the project could be the "horsepower" to put
it into motion.
To
better understand why private financing, especially of just the "land"
part of your eco-community, could work to the benefit of everyone
involved, look at it through Farmer Brown's eyes. He owns a large
piece of land, but he probably can't make money farming it conventionally
any longer because of all the competition from foreign countries or
American agro-industrial farms. Meanwhile, real estate prices have
been soaring all around that property and he'd like to cash in. On
top of that, the property taxes are rising too, because of increased
land valuations.
However,
there are potentially big problems with his selling out to a conventional
developer, especially if he and his family might also be faced with
moving out of the area:
-
They
love their home and want to pass it down to their kids —
this is their family's blood and heritage he's thinking about
selling ...
-
If
they move to someplace new, they'll have to start all over, making
new friends and such ...
-
He
probably loves working with the land, but now he'll have to give
that up ....
-
The
Browns will be leaving their life-long friends, family and lifestyle
behind ...
-
If
he holds the mortgage and ultimately has to foreclose, he'll be
taking back improved land almost for free. Of course, that's just
worst-case scenario and there are lots of other options for you
and your group to pursue before that were to happen. But still
...
Faced with all this, providing you the financing to make the deal
work could be a wonderful alternative! Typically, if this
is a large tract of land you are hoping to save from development,
it has probably either been farmed or used for harvesting timber,
either recently or in the past. If it is a typical small American
farm — 200 acres or less — it is likely being sold because
Farmer Brown can no longer afford to farm. Thousands of such American
farms are lost each year to foreclosure or to real estate developers
and the problem is getting worse.
If
this is the case, you can perhaps arrange with Brown for him to
continue farming or otherwise maintain the property. Let him split
any income derived between himself and your new homeowners' association.
This could insure your own supply of, say, organic food (though
you may have to teach Farmer Brown a thing or two about growing
food organically). It could even provide enough produce for you
or another community member to sell at either local farmers' markets
or even to a produce wholesaler.
Here's an example of how the deal might work: Let's say Farmer Brown
owns 100 acres which surrounds his house. With the current market,
let's say his land is worth about $11,000 per acre and he'd be happy
to sell it for that price.
You and your group, now "eco-community developers," would like to
live on a piece of land like his, so here's what happens:
-
Your group agrees to pay Brown $1,000,000 over time for 95 acres
of his land ...
-
He
keeps his home and five acres that it sits on ...
-
You
hire a builder to construct a group of townhouses on a small footprint
of that land you've just bought from Brown (hint: Have the builder
just build "shells," complete on the outside then let each family
finish theirs "to taste" on the inside) ...
-
The
rest of the land will be put to some useful, but no residential
or similar development purpose — instead, maybe it will be
used for growing organic produce or such.
While Brown might not have been able to make enough profit growing
conventional crops in the typical way, he might be able to do very
well going in these newer directions, especially if he can allow a
couple of years to return to "organic" status. If all else fails,
you can even let the land return to woods and forests, providing a
home for local wildlife while occasionally harvesting some timber
in a sustainable way. That could be a "real-world eco-community" in
action.
To me, an eco-community should not be confused with an "eco-village."
While they are both "intentional communities," an eco-village typically
has quite a few rules in place as to what residents may or may not
do. While there is nothing inherently wrong with such restrictions,
assuming all agree, rule-rich intentional communities are notoriously
difficult to put together.
And they can be even more difficult to keep together. The American
landscape is littered with such "IC"s, as they are often called, and
title to the land they held can be disputed for years after the fact.
(For further information on intentional communities, visit www.ic.org
or subscribe to Communities Magazine, published by The Fellowship
for Intentional Community from its address at the website.)
In short, be careful. It's an easy temptation to pile one ideal atop
another. But noble as it is, if you put too many caveats or "filters"
in place to screen out "the wrong people," the project can become
doomed before it gets off the ground. This is because each new restriction
you set eliminates one more group of potential buyer-investors. Then
the original goal — helping to save that special piece green
space for yourselves and your neighbors — has served no real
purpose and that pretty parcel of real estate may soon be lost to
hungry developers.
On the other hand, by putting in one special theme, such as "Vegetarian
foods only on the premises (milk and eggs are OK)," you stand
a good chance of success. Of course, normal rules and restrictions
for close-quarters living should also be in place — noise restrictions
and such. But your "theme" for the eco-community should be simple
enough to allow for actually standing a chance of saving that green
space.
Think of an eco-community as a "middle way" between a hippie commune
and a condo in the suburbs. Even better: Think of your project being
in ways like a golf-course community or a small ski resort. There,
it is one theme only which is the "glue" that binds the community
in place and gives it its definition. The golf course. The ski slope.
In fact, simply just saving one local piece of pristine property from
tract housing developers may be glue enough.
Of course, I've made this sound simpler than it is. But space is limited
and this will give you the big picture of how your eco-community could
work. My family and I are converting our own 100 acre organic farm
near Asheville, NC, into what we think is America's first vegetarian
eco-community. Our purpose is two-fold: To help bring together a group
of vegetarian individuals and families to forge a community of new,
like-minded friends. And to save more than 90 acres of what would
normally now be prime residential development property, making it
into "green space" forever. To us, it is an ideal way to help save
a threatened parcel of natural beauty.
The details of this project are found at www.dhhf.org
or www.dhhf.net
when you scroll down to "The Woodlands
at DeerHaven Hills" link You can use this in-depth website
as a "model" or "prototype" to help craft such an eco-community in
your own part of America or the world. Bottom line: An eco-community
can be a win-win situation any way you look at it.