Some neat ideas here.
I have two plans:
Plan A, my husband and I win the lotto, we buy land in either Washington County or Clackamas County, in the suburbs of Portland but not Portland proper. We can afford to bribe the zoning goons that keep things a bit stricter around here than I'd like. We'd also bribe public transit to go farther out and come to our community as the bus stop on the edge of their range, so people who can't drive can still get out and about. I really like Paul's independent/consensus/dictator model, its one of those things that at first may seem nonviable, but when one considers it, at least when I consider it, it really works well and makes sense. The one thing I'd do differently than Paul does is I, as the dictator, would only be able to veto a group decision (in our case we'd be big enough we might need to use sociocracy instead of consensus) four times a year. This way people would know that I'd only overrule them on something I view as very extra important. People could have whatever type of house they choose, but we'd all agree to not have a McMansion unless you plan to rent all of those rooms out and have a communal house, because in Fairelight Village, which I'm calling this area, we aren't about greed. We'd have a commonhouse with all manner of cool things, including an adults-only room in the basement
for those who wish to partake of such things. We'd have space to have Renaissance/fantasy/pirate events, festivals, parties, and other big events.
Plan B, Myself and my husband buy an acre and subdivide it into four sections. We sell the other three sections to other people who want to form intentional community. Since we have no control of zoning in this more realistic plan, each quarter acre lot can have one house and one ADU on it. We're still in Washington County or Clackamas County in OR, but this time we're within 3/4 mile of a all-day-every-day service bus stop, since we can't afford to bribe the public transit people
We might be able to sneak some unconventional dwellings into the middle of our plot where the government won't know they're there, and we'll keep an eye out on all pieces of property that either touch ours, or are across the street, and we'll have a waitlist of friends whom we'll notify if any go on sale, thus we will grow our community/agrihood guerilla style one lot at a time without having to worry about the perils of cobuying land with friends, or the expense of buying big amounts of land which we'd never be able to afford. In this version of reality Fairelight Village (I'm not married to the name so if someone has a better idea that's fine) will be run on some sort of consensus/sociocracy system, depending on how big we get. We'll build some sort of common structures on our portion/our 1/4 acre, and encourage others to have something on their portion that is for the community to use, gazebo, pizza oven, hot-tub, (actually I call dibbs on the hot tub), etc. Maybe someone will volunteer that their living room/kitchen is the "commonhouse"?
In either version our community will be made up of: Renaissance faire/fantasy festival/pirate campout people (that's my tribe), other artistic/creative types, permiculture/garden/sustainability enthusiasts, and anyone else who wants to come along and isn't irritating/rude/bossy/can't handle agreeing to disagree.
Our five top values are:
Personal liberty (don't tell people what to do and what I do is my choice). Collaborative cooperation (it is a community after all, and we can accomplish more together than seperately), Personal responsability (please be as reliable as you can). Respect and kindness (agree to disagree and don't boss each other around). Connection with Creation/the earth/nature (caring about this space we get to steward, people who find meaning in connection to nature, sustainability, you don't have to be perfect, but trying and working on goals is good.).
Another must-have, we need to be a mile or less away from some body of water, river, lake, creek, stream, heck even a pond. We of course will be growing lots of food, having concerts, workshops, art classes, etc.
