Concord Ecovillage

Working on Sketch Plans

The most exciting meeting I think I've ever had was yesterday at the Manyunk office of Re:Vision Architecture. Note that I'm not generally a fan of meetings, but this one was different. Not only was the effort a collaborative gathering of very dedicated minds, but we got the first chance to see sketches of proposed layouts for our community. Everyone had something to contribute, and we took the great ideas that the architects brought to the table, and made them even better. The sketch that results from this meeting will be used at the November 5th meeting with West Grove Borough where we orient them on what an ecovillage is (or isn't), and what we need for zoning.

Jenn Rezeli (Re:Vision) presented different options and we all weighed the pros and cons of each.

Leslie and Lane Travis contemplated the different plans.

JP Brokken (Re:Vision), Sandy Wiggins, and Anthony Aufdenkampe. There was a lot of serious thinking going on.

Jenn, Anthony, Scott Kelly (Re:Vision) and Janet Pelletier examine a natural pebble treatment for shower floors.

Walking our land with Rep. Art Hershey

On Thursday, October 23rd we had a Land-Walk on the Willow St. property in West Grove,Pa. We had gathered to introduce State Representative Art Hershey to our Concord Ecovillage project. We were sharing with Rep. Hershey, our goal of "LEED" certification. LEED stands for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System, which is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance "green" buildings.

Buildings that are LEED certified have taken into consideration such things as water and energy saving measures, reduced construction waste, the selection of renewable or "green" building materials and the attention to indoor air quality. Art was very supportive of our project; and has offered to help us in any way possible. He also will be looking into State funded grants for solar power to move us toward our goal of "Net-Zero" energy. Art Hershey is also a farmer and long-time advocate of agricultural land preservation. As we stood in the sunny meadow that morning, he commented on how great the soil must be, judging from the clumps of rich, green grass. I suspect he's a guy who would know.

In attendance were ( pictured, left to right ) Developer Sandy Wiggins, our Real Estate agent Margot Mohr-Teetor, Rep. Art Hershey, Developer Jackie O'Neil; and equity-member and future home-owner Lane Travis. Our picture was graciously taken by friend Gwen Lacy, Executive Director of Kennett Land Trust .

Picture yourself here too. We have a few houses left. One might be yours.

Meetings with Borough on general ecovillage site design considerations

In the last week I've had the pleasure twice of meeting Officials of West Grove Borough to discuss our project to build Pennsylvania's first Ecovillage within walking distance of their downtown.  The purpose of these meetings was to initiate discussions about the site design considerations that are central to all ecovillages and cohousing neighborhoods.  Both conversations were very encouraging.

On Monday, Margot Mohr Teetor, our realtor, and I met with Thomas Lowry, West Grove's Zoning Officer.  I handed him an info packet that included:

• A summary that we put together of the important site design considerations for ecovillages (Download SiteDesignConsiderations_v1.pdf).
• A recent article from the Seattle Times that describes that demand and sales of "green" homes or  homes in cohousing neighborhoods are bucking recent downtrends, and are in fact growing.
• An exellent article from Fine Homebuilding (A Deliberate Neighborhood, 2001; or republished in a book, or email me for a photocopy) that describes how Island Cohousing worked in close partnership with the local planning commission to develop new cohousing-friendly zoning ordinances.

Our conversation wove through many of the important points in these articles and ended with a nod from Tom that he personally felt that our project goals sounded worthwhile, but added that a new zoning ordinance would be needed.  His advice:  convince the Planning Commission and Council of the value of this project to the entire Borough, then partner with him as a consultant to work on drafting new zoning ordinances to present to the Planning Commission and Council.

On Wednesday, Sandy Wiggins and Jackie O'Neil, our development partners, Margot Mohr Teetor and I met with Borough Employees and Officials, Sharon Nesbit (Borough Manager), Joe Colon (Councilperson), and Janet Paterson (Chairman of the Planning Commission).  I passed out the same information packet plus a copy of the excellent DVD "Building Sustainable Communities for Today's Housing Market" that was just produced by Mid-Atlanic Cohousing.  Our conversation covered much of the same ground.  It appeared that all were very open if not enthusiastic about our general concepts, but they also cautioned that we would need to present our site sketch plan with a detailed list of deviations from current zoning, so that we could efficiently partner in developing new ordinances with the fewest number of iterations.

All in all, these meetings were an excellent start to our emerging partnership with West Grove Burough to build the first Ecovillage in Pennsylvania.

Agreement of Sale!

One more step has been completed in our journey. Today, the Agreement of Sale was signed for the land. This means that our 60-day Due Diligence has officially started. We'll be working with West Grove Borough officials on regulations, working with the architects for sketches and plans, and reaching out for folks like you and me who want to be a part of this. Believe me, that last one is very important. We need you!

Up unitl now, we had been quoting a "well-known" statistic that only 10% of co-housing communities actually get to build. Turns out that the quote was wrong. The quote was actually that 10% of Intentional Communities build, and the source was Diana Leafe Christian in her book Building a Life Together. However, she acknowledges that the statistics for Cohousing communities are much better. In fact, Chuck Durrett estimates that 30% of cohousing communities get to build. You can see Ms. Christian's comments here. That statistic of 30% of course includes the communities that never even get as far as signing an Agreement of Sale, and the ones that never find really fantastic and dedicated developers like we have. Historically, co-housing or ecovillages have not been able to find developers; that is a more recent turn that significantly increases the chances of success for more recent efforts.

Our chances of success are going up by the moment. Come help us, and they get even better.

Solar Tour and Other Fun on Oct 19

What an exciting day! We started out in Perkiomenville for a tour of Jackie O'Neil's solar home. It's just over 2000 square feet of the most comfortable space you can imagine. The entire house is bright and warm; even though the Fall day was cool, the sun shining in had warmed the house to 70F by mid morning. The house has 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, a very comfortable kitchen/dining/living area, and a loft-study where I am sure I would spend all my time. The yard was naturalized, with a beautiful meadow and casual stone and gravel pathway to the frontdoor. We were very pleased to have such a great showing of new and old friends, too! A total of 17 adults and a half dozen kids were there, including people who saw our flyers in the health food store, folks some of us knew from our workplace, and folks from Altair, a community  based out of Phoenixville, PA.

After the tour and a delightful lunch at Mr. Lee's, some of us continued on to tour our land, and were met there by experts in stream ecology and restoration. Alas, we were not quick enough to get a picture of one of them on his knees at the edge of the little ditch/stream, up to his elbows in thick muck. He was trying to find the bottom, but mostly, it looked like mud and more mud. Hopefully we can get a better idea of whether it is feasible to move the stream, or whether we need to restore it in place.

Finally, we continued onward to an informative presentation by John Lodise who is a Senor Loan Officer at Bryn Mawr Trust. They have in-house mortgages, so have more flexibility to think outside of the box. We talked about whether he could factor in the fact that we would have no power bills (yes), and how we could get comps for our very unique houses. He was very excited to meet the group and helped us understand what we each needed to do to prepare our own finances for our big purchases. He has offered to consult with folks individually, but of course, there is no obligation.

If you're sorry you missed the fun, join us on November 2 when we will have another land walk and a presentation from our developer. Stay tuned!!

New Flyer for our Oct19 and Nov2 Events

Help get the word out! Please download our flyer about our upcoming events (October 19 and November 2)! Print it, email it, find ways to let folks know what we're up to. Thanks!

Meeting with the Architects

Yesterday we met with the Architects who will help us design the community. It was a delight to get back out on the land and see it in the early days of fall. Wildflowers (and poison ivy!) were all over and the day was one of those crisp blue-sky days just perfect for dreaming.

Our Architect team is Re:Vision Architecture, and we met Scott, Jenn and JP. Our real estate agent Margot was there, as well as our developers Sandy and Jackie. We had fun trying to imagine where the houses should go, and whether we could re-use the old house on the property or whether it should be taken down and recycled. We also debated the ditch/creek bed and whether it could be moved for a reasonable cost. It was obviously straightened at some time in the distant past, but restoring it could be expensive and require special permitting. We shall have to investigate this one.

After walking the land for a while, we re-convened at Janet's house for a snack of homemade mozzarella, organic crackers, and other local products. (of course!) We continued brainstorming and contemplating the future. We should have sketches to review in a couple weeks, and can't wait to see what this exciting team comes up with.

Land Ho!!!

 

Concord Ecovillage is pleased to announce that a Letter of Intent has been signed for the purchase of land in West Grove, PA, where we intend to build our ecovillage neighborhood! We are also pleased to announce that Concord Ecovillage will develop this property in partnership with Sandy Wiggins and Jackie O’Neil, two nationally recognized green building consultants/developers.

FAQs:   

What happens next?

The Letter of Intent outlines the intended Agreement of Sale. Once the Agreement of Sale is signed, a 60 day period of Due Diligence begins to further confirm the feasibility of the project. After satisfactory completion of Due Diligence, the land sale will be finalized and we will begin sustained design and marketing efforts.  Our design goals will be defined in an intense design workshop, or charrette, led by green building professionals.  Our marketing goal is to pre-sell 25 out of 33 homes in order to begin construction in early 2010.  Construction will be done in phases, with the Common House constructed last and the entire project completed in the first half of 2011.

What can you share about the property?

The land is southeast of the intersection of South Guernsey Road and Willow Street in the Borough of West Grove, PA. It is 6.8 acres, and is mostly open with mature trees to the south. Denny Howell of D.L. Howell and Associates, Inc., has already gotten it approved for a 34-unit development, making our time-to-develop much shorter than it would be on most other properties. We are incredibly thankful for his willingness to share in our vision. Although the plans need re-work to become an ecovillage, this preliminary planning on the property will enable us to break ground much sooner than would be otherwise possible.
The property is a walkable half mile to downtown West Grove Borough with a new library, Post Office, shops, restaurants and a weekly farmers market.  It is within the well-respected Avon Grove School District, is 1.1 miles to the high school and 1.6 miles to the acclaimed Avon Grove Charter School. West Grove Borough is eager to welcome us as a part of their vibrant and growing community, and has indicated that they will work with us to get revised approvals quickly. Their wonderful attitude towards our community will help immeasurably in making this project a success. We are eager to integrate in to West Grove and contribute to it.

What is the vision for the land?

The approved plans need to be re-drawn to create an Ecovillage rather than a typical townhouse development. We would use the allotted 34 units to create 1 large Common House (about 4000 square feet) and 33 smaller private dwellings. Our homes would have between 1 and 4 bedrooms, and would range between 750 and 1500 square feet, with most being 3 bedrooms and 1300 square feet.  Prices would be in the range of $200,000 to $400,000. They would most likely share some walls, but nothing is firm yet. Separate garages to one side of the property would provide roof space for a million-dollar photovoltaic solar array that would provide enough electricity to make our community Net Zero Energy; we would supply at least as much power to the grid as we would consume. The solar array is only the first of many measures we would take to become the first LEED Platinum Certified residential community in Pennsylvania, and we may even take up the Living Building Challenge. Gardens, room for the children to play, accommodations for aging in place, and native plantings are envisioned. At this stage, we don’t have a lot of detail on the design of homes or how things will be placed on the land. This will be determined during design charettes, which will be open to potential residents and will likely begin in the next month.  Stay tuned for dates!

Who are the people partnering with Concord Ecovillage?

Sandy Wiggins, Chairman of e3bank, in organization
Known for his commitment to the future of the human family, Sandy has been a national leader in the Green Building revolution. Sandy is founder and principal of Consilience, LLC, a national real estate consultancy with a mission to build environmentally, socially and economically sustainable communities. He is the Immediate Past Chair of the Washington, D.C. based U.S. Green Building Council, and he continues to serve as a Director and a member of USGBC's Executive Committee. Sandy was Founding Chair of the Philadelphia based Delaware Valley Green Building Council. He also currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Rutgers University Center for Green Building and as a juror for the Delaware Valley Smart Growth Alliance. During a three-decade career in the building industry, he has had responsibility for projects totaling over one billion dollars. His vision and leadership have been responsible for the development of dozens of LEED commercial projects and the nation's first LEED Gold certified homes, which were also net zero energy consumers. His skillful facilitation has also helped birth sustainable master plans for municipalities and institutional campuses as well as sustainable regional public policy initiatives.

Jackie O’Neil, Director of e3bank, in organization
Jackie is a well known Delaware Valley sustainability leader, advocate, and winner of a 2007 Philadelphia Sustainability Award.  She has 30 years of high level management, systems strategy, usability design, web, and software design experience for companies such as The Vanguard Group, where she designed and managed the operational work flows and online customer experiences.  She is a partner in Intuitive Design, where she consults on product innovation and user experience for companies such as Merck, GSK, Rohm and Haas, Unisys, Deloitte, Fannie Mae, and Colorado National Bank.  Jackie built and lives in the first LEED Gold certified home in the U.S., which is also a net zero consumer.  She developed this home with a vision to make it an educational model for mainstream, sustainable homebuilding throughout the region, and she was successful at doing that at conventional market costs. Thousands of building industry professionals, educators, homeowners, and school children in the U.S., and from as far away as Japan and Nigeria, have made the pilgrimage to visit her home and hear her story so that they can share her vision of what is possible.

I really want to live in Concord Ecovillage. Can I buy a house?

Of course! There are 33…uhmmm 31, well…. maybe 30 units left un-spoken for.  We may have a rental unit or two if there are people who want to buy a unit and rent it out. But before we get to the point where we can all move in, there’s a lot of work to do, and a lot of ways you can help shape the community. We also really need your help because there are still a lot of ways we could fall in the mud here. Not only do we need future home-owners and investors, but we need every-day folks who believe in the vision and just want to help out.

How can I learn more?

Stay tuned to this Blog, but even more importantly, come meet us! We’ll be posting a schedule of events soon!

Welcome to the Progress Blog

Welcome! We'll be keeping you updated on our progress to build the community, starting from the "beginning". In truth, it has taken a long time just to get to what most people think is the beginning. Our group has been in existence for five years now, waiting for that perfect combination of people and place to coalesce. As everything creaks in to alignment, we're getting ready for the wildest ride many of us will ever undertake!