Cohousing-L Mailing List: Ecology, community is a lifestyle

[Thomas Lofft (tlofft]

Local press coverage on Hundredfold Farm in Ortanna, PA, near Gettysburg 
National Military Park, both of which are well worth a visit on your next trip 
east of the Mississippi.


Tom Lofft

Liberty Village, MD




http://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/environment/ecology-community-is-a-lifestyle/article_c3fc05f4-57b3-53f3-9eee-91c931c86b07.html

[Hundredfold Farm]


Among sprawling hills of pine trees sits a three-acre community where running 
into neighbors is not an inconvenience but sought and valued by homeowners. 
Hundredfold Farm Cohousing Community in Adams County, Pennsylvania, between 
South Mountain and Gettysburg National Military Park, is a housing development 
intentionally focused on sustainability and community.
As a young family in the late 1990s, Bill Hartzell and his wife Sandy Hartzell 
moved from Seattle to Pennsylvania and looked for people who would be 
interested in building a co-housing community, based off multigenerational 
Scandinavian communities with shared spaces where members of the community can 
come together.
The Hartzells had two sons and previously lived in two such communities out 
West while Bill worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 
Community was something the family wanted to build again.
“A lot of the housing choices, especially if you’re a young family, are pretty 
isolating,” Bill Hartzell said.
The community has no religious or political affiliation. Instead, Hundredfold 
Farm is an intentional community of members who actively participate in a 
sustainability together.
Co-housing, short for collaborative housing, is a lifestyle where running into 
neighbors is intentional, he said.
Hundredfold Farm is relatively unique, because most co-housing communities are 
urban. Nationally there are 163 established communities, according to the 
Co-housing Association of the United States. Hundredfold Farm is one of just a 
handful of rural co-housing communities, including Liberty Village in Union 
Bridge in Frederick County.
Seven Springs Tree Farm, an 80-acre Christmas tree farm, was purchased in 2000 
by a group of families. Only three acres were converted for housing, clustered 
on the farm’s worst agricultural lands to become Hundredfold, he said.
The homes are situated on the farm’s upper plateau with a 180-degree view of 
the surrounding area. Ample space is available for community vegetable and 
flower gardens.
It took six years for the first home to be built. Now, there are 10 single 
family homes on the property and room for four more, Hartzell said. Like the 
other community members, he owns his house but shares everything else. 
Community members share barn space and equipment, for instance, which allows 
them all to have access to higher quality materials, while saving money.
The area attracts people for tax breaks and the country lifestyle, Hartzell 
said. Currently, the youngest person in the community is 40 years old, but in 
the past, several of the families had children who have since grown, he said.
The community was designed to be ecologically minded. The homes are energy 
efficient and powered by solar. As a whole, the community creates more energy 
than it can use and receives a small check from the power company.
It is their sewage treatment plant, though, that draws the public in, Hartzell 
said. There was no municipal water or sewer available for the housing group, so 
they built an artificial wetland inside a greenhouse structure. There is no 
such structure anywhere else in the state, he said. The structure does more 
than manage the community’s water. A portion of the effluent is treated and 
reused for irrigation. Residents also grow herbs and salad greens on raised 
beds inside during the winter.
“A big part of our mission is education,” Hartzell said.
Hundredfold Farm offers tours on the first Saturday of each month. People can 
also come visit the treatment facility and community by appointment. The 
families also operate the Christmas tree farm, which draws people from the 
surrounding areas each holiday season.
A centerpiece of each community is a shared common house. At Hundredfold Farm, 
the farmhouse fulfills this role. The common house is a place for the community 
to meet, share meals and discuss plans and issues that impact everyone.
A few of the homes have changed hands, and 12 families have been a part of 
Hundredfold’s community, Hartzell said. One aspect of co-housing is a “great 
effort” by the community “to get together and come to an agreement” without 
voting, but rather listening. This cooperative sharing of ideas and 
compromising passes down to the next generation.
One surprise benefit of living in a co-housing community, which revealed itself 
to Hartzell over many years, was the different perspective children raised this 
way have of others’ opinions. He said the Hundredfold children respect the 
opinions of others and work collaboratively to reach agreements that benefit 
all involved.