Cohousing-L Mailing List: city vs. country

[Raymond D. Gasser (raygasser]

Here at EcoVillage at Ithaca, we're about 1-1/2 miles up the hill from the
center of town on what was once a farm. It had been re-zoned for a developer
who was going to build 150 houses on 1-acre lots over the whole 176 acre
plot. We got the land and so far have put up 30 households on about 3 acres.
If we make it to our ultimate goal, there will be 5 neighborhoods with 150
houses covering around 25-30 acres, leaving the other 150 acres as woods,
farmland & open space.

I like the idea of re-using existing space (like sections of downtown) for
CoHousing communities, and not eating up existing open space, but I think we
found a way to keep existing open space mostly intact, where it would
otherwise have been turned into ordinary suburbia.

I do often miss being able to walk to everything like when I lived downtown,
but now I love going to sleep & waking up to birds, frogs & crickets, rather
than cars & trucks. And, oh, the stars at night...

Ray Gasser
raygasser [at] delphi.com