Reality Check: Making a Microvillage Neighborhood

When you begin to articulate a dream as big and as far-fetched as utopian neighborhoods: little, planned, microcosms of vibrant community, you are going to invite thoughtful realists to scream, "Hey!! Hold your horses! How in the [expletive deleted] could this actually happen?!"
 
Microvillages sounded fantastic when I outlined them out for you, right? Who wouldn't want to live there? Well now its time to take it a step further and paint a picture of what the major hurdles would be and how a group could overcome them.
 
That's our first hurdle. Who. Who is your tribe? Who will join you in trailblazing a microvillage? That is the first question.  I am a huge fan of brainstorming and one idea, if you haven't found your tribe yet, is to make a list of 100 of the things that you could find as common ground with other people. Things that you are passionate enough about that you'd want to locate your life around a group of like-minded others.

(If you've never made a list of 100, what you do is take a paper and number it out to 100 and then sit down for at least 20 uninterrupted minutes (or until you finish the list- but the key is to do it in one sitting) and write out every possible idea. Usually, the first 10 are well thought out and obviously good ideas, and by 40 or 50 your hitting the stupid ideas, but your pressed to think of SOMETHING to write down, and then, you push through and make it to 100 and somewhere in the 60-80 range you find a little piece of gold that becomes the actual solution to your brainstorming question.) Its an awesome technique, and once you figure out your common ground, make an effort to seek out people who are also as passionate about that one thing as you are.
 
Places that might help are local clubs and organizations (tiny house clubs, garden clubs, fishing and wildlife clubs, bird-watching clubs, musical theater groups, rotary, lions club, artists guild, running club, sports club, a club of professionals in your field), church groups (maybe even churches you've never outreached to but who have an active community life and/or social opportunities), community service groups (habitat for humanity, soup kitchen, check out online networking for volunteer groups like Volunteer Match) often times you can find groups that meet at your library (check their calendar of events). You might be able to find a local Facebook group of people to connect with, or meetup.com might be an option for networking with like-minded others. At the very least, doing this first step might bring you into new friendships with people who share your passions and hobbies, even if you never build your microvillage.
 
But let's say you find people that you click with, or you have a tight group of friends already, or a large family that is close-knit that might be on board with the idea. The next step is the pitch. They probably have never thought about a microvillage. The normal course of events is to arrive at adulthood in one way or another (you graduate, you get married, you land that job you've been chasing) and find a home to start out on your own. You think of "must haves" in terms of bedrooms/bathrooms/ square footage/yard size and location but you don't think beyond that into the realm of planning your own neighborhood. Figure out a way to bring it up in conversation. "Hey, Aunt Mabel, this might sound crazy but I came across this idea the other day and I can't stop thinking about it!"

Once you present the vision of the microvillage, if you have people who's response is "YES", then you proceed to the next step. (okay there is kind of a sub-step here, but asssuuuming you all live relatively nearby, finding a job for so-and-so won't be an issue, but if that is, you have to find a mutual location where all of y'all can find good jobs- or work from home jobs, or accept a longer commute) The next step is what I would call "vision building" where you decide to commit and you move in the direction of, what does this mean for each of us, what can we contribute towards setting up such a venture, and what is our vision; what do we want out of this endeavor? That answer is going to vary WIDELY. Every step after the first step of finding people is probably going to vary widely because the personalities, personal preferences, resources, family structures, incomes, and lifestyles will vary. But if you are all committed to moving forward, its just a matter of communicating where you are coming from and then together coming up with a plan for where you are going with this.
 
Let's say you have 6 young families who are on board, two empty nesters, one set of elderly grandparents, and two college students. You're actually in an awesome starting point because you have a variety of inputs, physical resources, financial resources, and varied life experiences to draw on. You have the energy and hopefulness of the younger generation, and the lived experience and wisdom from the older. You have families with concerns for children and priorities for their environment as well as thoughtfulness towards how the neighborhood will be as you age into it. The more diverse and varied the ages and backgrounds are of the individuals on board the richer the experience will be and the more resilient. (If you are all a certain way with identical resources then you're going to hit hurdles where none of you will have an advantage; variety and difference provide strength and benefit)

 You're going to draft ideas for a layout. Who wants acreage? Who wants a low maintenance yard? How big do we want the center green to be? What kinds of semi-private spaces? What kind of community buildings? How big should the buffer edge be? Should there be orchards? Fields? Forest? How much acreage total will be necessary?
 
You'll need to research zoning codes and town by-laws. Which towns and counties have fewer restrictions? Would it be better to be within or outside a certain municipal district? Which areas have affordable land prices? What are the taxes like? Town and county  websites are a good place to start for this.

If you have one member who can be the benefactor to get the project through the initial launch then you're ahead of the game. But lets say that you're all middle-class, average income earners, in varying stages of debt and home ownership. The next step once you settle on priorities and firming up your vision will be drafting out a budget and a phased plan for making this happen. Perhaps someone in your group is an accountant, but if not, you still need to crunch numbers and timelines to come up with a plan and how it will progress. There are tools that can be used in this process. One is an open source app called cobudget which is a methodology for collaborative decision-making around money.
 
Draw up contracts, get it in writing, perhaps even divide up the ownership in phases. (certain families will own a larger percent of the microvillage to start with because they are supplying the initial funding, but they can sell off their shares to other families at a certain later point) You'll also draft a mission statement, community vision, and land covenant documents. Create a Home Owners Association (or HOA) and determine the guidelines, fees and conflict resolution that it will operate by.

One example might be: The Smiths, Martinezes and Marshalls put their current homes on the market. They use the money gained from their sales into an account that is used to put a down payment on the land, finance the surveying, subdivision, and initial infrastructure development. The Smiths will move into the house that's on the property and the Martinezes will put a single-wide on the property while the Marshalls will rent nearby. The microvillage layout will be tweaked and adapted to accommodate the actual landscape of the property.

The group will get the potential parcels perked, home sites determined, land subdivided, (and sold to other members, thereby paying the initial three families back). They will pull all the building permits, planning board approvals, and take care of all necessary legal groundwork.  If terraforming is necessary to put in the roads, utilities, light posts, sidewalks, and prep for home sites then it's done. All the families begin building their homes, and as they are completed, move in and start living the dream.
 
Is it a logistical undertaking of epic proportions? Yes. Would the outcome be equally as epic? Who's to say it wouldn't be? 

The thing is, there are so many potential avenues of approach to creating a microvillage. The description above is just one possible way.

The best way toward a microvillage lies in assessing everyone's unique strengths and resources.

Is Dave a Lawyer? He can draft all the legal documents. The covenants, the contracts, the protections for individuals if certain things turned pear shaped or take longer than projected. Does Mark own a septic company and can get septic systems installed at cost? Does he have relationships with members of the planning board? Is Sharon a realtor? Does she have her thumb on the rural property market? Or can she use her network to start monitoring opportunities that come up? Can she help other members sell their homes? Have Cindy and Steve saved up a down payment and have a sizeable amount of cash that could go towards all the up front costs? If one of the members is really good with numbers they can help find a way forward with the budget. If one is really on the ball with note-taking then they can transcribe all the meetings and make quick work of drawing mission statements and guiding documents into writing. In all of this if each member contributes from their strengths and abundance, they are building community through undertaking the project and they are constructing a purposeful neighborhood for their future life. 
 
Other avenues of approach might be that one family funds the entire initial outlay. They buy the property, subdivide it according to plan and sell each parcel to the other members. Or perhaps a developer gets an idea to build a microvillage, or a series of microvillages and finances them upfront and sells them off. (This avenue of approach gets tricky in what makes for a cohesive neighborhood and how that vision would hold together, but its one option that has certain merits.)
 
I hope this layer of the thought experiment hasn't been too daunting, but rather, shines a light on the reality  - that self-designing and developing a microvillage certainly isn't for the faint of heart.  What worthy endeavor is though?
 
If you'd like it, here's a free summary checklist for planning your microvillage. It has a lot of these thoughts on the steps towards a microvillage distilled down.