Self Sustaining Village

Dear Friends:

We are in the process of Developing a self sustaining village in Southern Wisconsin. The development will be a cooperative / co-housing community and be Community Sponsored Agriculture / Development on 1200 acres. It will contain the following:

Town Center:
Food Processing (Taverna): Cannery, Dairy, Winery, Meat, Beer, Distillery, Fish, Smokehouse, Oil's, Flour Mill
Artisan Crafts
Mirco-Enterprise
Holistic Health Center
Farm to Table Restaurant and Culinary Center


Community Permaculture Farm :
With all the outbuildings

Residential Homes:

Mirco Apartments 400 to 600 SF
Cottage Homes 700 to 900 SF
Village Homes 1000 to 1500 SF
Manor Homes 1600 to 2200 SF

All building material will come from whole salvaged historic building dismantled and reassembled onsite to building code standards. New material will come from onsite or within 10 radius. There will be creative and conventional terms offered. All who are interested please contact us for more information.

This sounds interesting and quite ambitious. Are any of the buildings already in place? It sounds almost like a completely new town (is it going to be zoned as such or just considered part of another city/county set?) from scratch. I hope that there will be updates on how this is going. I admit to being very curious how it will work until all of the vital roles can be fleshed out. Another thought is how it will be governed. The first thing that comes to mind is a HOA.

There are a few buildings in place. It will be classified as an Planned Urban Development. It is located near a small hamlet were they are seeking revitalization. We will be building the town center around the original hamlet buildings. To administer a rural agriculture community there has to rules set down so residence do the work when and how, so that is why there has to be HOA. Even in co-housing communities there are rules and standards with its members have come to compromise and agreement. This community will be setup as a Land Trust - Cooperative - Cohousing. Many places do not allow you to grow your own food and create mirco-enterprise (local made goods) This village is being set as a place, were the spirit homesteading is allowed. So you can farm, get all your food and practice your craft. Classical and Tradition Architecture is the original Green Building.

I should note that if anything I have said sounds accusatory, it is unintended. Mostly I have questions that I thought should be addressed in the post so that people interested could learn more before making personal contact. I know some people can be cautious when there is a post that doesn't go into certain details looking for direct contact. Also, some people might be cautious due to the limited number of postings/presence you have so far. Being able to read the answers openly will go a long way to helping them decide if they wish to make contact. Another question that came to me was to ask if there is a website related to the project?

Sounds interesting - I'm curious - how are you sourcing appliances, heating and cooling equipment, plumbing piping, electrical wire and lighting fixtures? Lots of this can be salvaged/re-used or accomplished with alternative techniques (passive heating/cooling, masonry heaters), but recycled PVC fittings are hard to come by (if you are using PVC). Just curious how you are tackling these challenges!

Sounds like a good approach. Any updates?