Open-Source Real Estate Development

= a proposal of the Village Towns project

URL = http://www.villagetowns.net

Description

"The current urban development models are not working. Our answer, outlined here, advocates a new model of open-source real-estate development.

This proposal is atypical: far-reaching; familiar yet different; ready to go; requires a small “kick-starter” fund to trigger the first $1.6 billion development. It proposes to turn real-estate development upside down; completed in three years; engendering a wide range of sustainable outcomes not based on something new, but on new use of timeless ideas benefiting from emerging sustainable technologies.

We call it a VillageTown. It’s self-organizing, self-creating, self-funding, self-supporting, self-sustaining, self-correcting, self-replicating: a car-free town made of 20 side-by-side villages (each with its own character) surrounding a cosmopolitan, walk-to town centre all on 150-acre urban core. Outside the VillageTown walls, 50-acre walk-to industrial park. All encircled by a 300 acre Greenbelt to prevent cross-boundary conflicts, provide direct experience of Nature, convivial activities with sports and festival fields, gardens, cemetery, restored native bush and eco-management of water, waste water, solid waste and local energy. Set amid farms to develop a market for local food.

It uses no developer. Instead, we, the VillageTown Stewards establish an organizing company (ViTo) that retains an estimated $200 million in development profits. When built, we transfer all ViTo’s shares (including net profits), one share per home, to establish local citizen-control. The ViTo initiates a local economy of privately-owned small-to-medium enterprises (SME) where the $200-million fund levels the playing field; enabling SMEs marketplace success by accessing the ViTo’s expertise, financing and investment capital. The ViTo’s environmental mission is to identify and implement the best proven sustainable technologies. Because it builds 4,000 town-houses and 1,000 workplaces simultaneously, economies-of-scale kick in; those savings buy the world’s pre-eminent eco-technologies.

An estimated 6,000 cars are permanently taken off the road; not replaced by mass transit, but by walking, biking and goods-delivery using NEV’s. Target: zero outbound commuters. Carbon footprint shrinks dramatically; removing the need to drive based on zoological principles of “home range” (move destinations not people).

Population of each village is 500+/- people (200 homes) forming a face-to-face, supportive “complete-community”. The 10,000 population town establishes critical mass to support a wealth-creating local economy and a socially & culturally-enriched environment. The local economy is based on private enterprise, but its inherent structure means the ViTo can guarantee zero-unemployment, zero-poverty, low-tolerance for crime, safe, stimulating place to raise/educate children, local lifetime-care for elders, 25% permanently-affordable housing (blue-collar, youth, elders, artists, service workers, etc), local food, local energy, local waste reuse. All this enables its citizens to live “a good life” understood as the social pursuits of conviviality, citizenship, and artistic, intellectual & spiritual growth.

The concept is based on proven systems and technology. It’s replicable. It’s driven by Stewards not investors; most of us are at the age where we want to leave a legacy. It’s a deeply-thought-out concept backed by three books."

More Information

See www.villagetowns.net.

Focusing north of Auckland: http://village-town.com/kai/ (New Zealand project)