“When individuals and communities do not govern self, they risk being ruled by external forces that care less about the well-being of the village.”  TF Hodge

We take location selection extremely seriously.  We’ve seen a number of well-intentioned cohousing and ecovillage projects get into trouble by settling for a building site that ultimately did not generate sufficient interest because a key element was missing.

The purpose of this website is to lay out a vision, attract interested people, and then connect them together and share best practices in an effort to make something happen.  It will take time.  Like a start-up, it is important to get an good team in place.  Based on responses to date, there seems to be building interest in three areas of the world.

1. Europe – namely Spain, the UK and Ireland.
2. The US East Coast – from the Mid Atlantic to New England.
3. The US/Canadian West Coast – From Monterey, CA north to Vancouver, BC.

Assuming a natural environment is a must, there are two options:

Option 1 – Rural Land.  The challenge here is to be sure a critical mass of people move together for sufficient synergies around schools, services, etc.

Option 2  – Land Adjacent to a large town.   Ideally, especially for families, a location can be found with exceptional walkability and bikeability to both services and schools and yet still be located in a setting with a rural natural feel.  Land that meets these criteria is scarce and sets us up for having to find a needle in a haystack – but it is possible, and something we are committed to doing if desired by the forming community.

We are also committed to a critical mass of at least 10-20 residences (and a common house and gardens).  We feel it is important to have enough people to share the load of creating and maintaining a community and enough space to meaningfully practice our permaculture principles.

Here’s an example of a piece of land on the US east coast that is adjacent to town, schools, services, and yet has a river, pond and small forest.