Turning urban neighborhoods into sustainable communities

Hello-
I am gauging interest in an idea. My partner and I have an opportunity to buy an established ecological landscaping business in Portland, OR and change the direction. Here's what we are thinking: a business that helps transition neighborhoods into sustainable communities. This might look like fences being taken down and common amenities added, such as a community gathering space, greenhouse, vegetable gardens, food forest, etc.
How does it work??

It starts with gathering the neighbors that are interested in participating, likely drawn by the ideals of:
- lowered cost of living
- more space (and more variety of spaces) to enjoy from home
- shared resources
- better connections with neighbors
- safer space for kids and pets (more folks to keep an eye on them)
- more contiguous habitat for birds & other wildlife (fewer fences)
- access to fresh produce from gardens (without necessarily having to put all the work in!)

We meet with the interested neighbors and essentially conduct a design meeting to gather information, asking:
- What is important to you in your living space?
- What do you like about your current space?
- What would you like to be different?
- What would you like to have that you don't currently?
- How do you see yourself and others engaging with a communal space?
- What are the limiting factors?
- Who else might enjoy this space?
- What kind of activities would you like to make room for?
- How do you see yourself participating in the evolution of this space? Where do you see your level of involvement?

We lay out a plan that includes:
A series of workshops with the group to learn community tools (Sociocracy, NVC, conflict resolution, etc)
Integrated Systems Design (a collaborative design process that incorporates the needs of each community member)
Garden/landscape design & installation (folks are encouraged to pitch in where they are able)
Building design & construction (there is also an optional level of participation for certain projects)
Ongoing support as needed

The cost for all this should be much more manageable than personally hiring a designer or contractor as it can be shared evenly amongst the group.

I would love to know what you think after reading this. If you live in an urban neighborhood, is this something you would be interested in? If not, I would love to hear the reasons that it would not work for you or your family.

Thank you!

We have a local non-profit that was mandated to take over the municipal greenhouse and use that to foster sustainable community projects. They house a small organic plant nursery, an eco-friendly urban gardening landscaper, some community projects, a farmer's market in the fall (when it's too cold for the usual outdoors market)... That said, they could not survive if they didn't get the greenhouse for free from the city, and they can only pay for one part-time employee.

The other bit of wisdom I could offer, is that my best childhood friend was involved in two community housing projects. The first one was starting from scratch and she gave up before the building even got started: too much bickering and argueing about conflicting visions and values. Lots of people mean different thing when you say"community"; from polyamorous groups to "we just wanted to share a single lawnmower".  The second one was an established partly-subsidized housing co-op with clear existing rules and roles, and an interview process. And that one proceeded super smoothly, and she and her husband lived there for a really long time pre-kids.  It actually worked way better than most condos, because it was clear what you signed out for. It was still a fairly diverse community in terms of economic means, ages, origins... But they all knew what they were getting into to start with.

The key, I think, was to start with an established structure and weed out people who did not fit with that vision, rather than try to reconcile a group with different goals. They also favored candidates with practical skills (idealism is great, but way better if you can back it up with know-how and resourcefulness). Having been involved in many volunteering projects, I found that those were often full of younger people with more ideas than skills (which is normal in a young person), but that people who could act as mentors were just too busy raising families and making a living to get involved.

Another model that I've seen succeed is the "let's tentatively remove the fence and grow from there", especially for families with kids of similar ages. But these were communities that grew organically between existing like-minded neighbours, and I'm not sure any of them would have committed beforehand to a larger scale project until they could dip their toes into it. That's what we're slowly trying to build: sharing tools with neighbours, knowing we can rely on each other in a crisis, having our kids roam in an age-appropriate way. But we're the only ones truly interested in gardening, so I only hope to inspire...

All this to say that you'll probably need a solid value proposition and a clear path to making money (if you need this to be a sustainable business that will pay you a living wage), because it's not an easy road. But the world needs that!

Why either/or?   The business appears to have a worthwhile profitable mission.  Why not keep it?    That doesn’t prevent you from expanding the vision.

I remembered seeing a video about this specific thing in Oregon...

BTW, here's the landscaping business I was talking about. Might be an interesting model (but I doubt they make lots of money; looks more like a labor of love )

Urban Seedlings