http://www.cfe.cornell.edu/ecovillage/ -- Lawrence F. London, Jr. mailto:london@sunSITE.unc.edu http://sunSITE.unc.edu/InterGardenTitle: EcoVillage at Ithaca
EcoVillage at Ithaca, Inc. is a not-for-profit
foundation, formed to envision and actualize a more sustainable kind of
neighborhood development, by creating a model village on a site in the Town
of Ithaca, NY. A related organization, EV/CRESP is a project of Cornell
University's Center for Religion, Ethics, and Social Policy, and serves
as the educational arm of the EcoVillage project. The EVI site is 176 acres
of fields, woods, and wetlands, about two miles west of downtown Ithaca,
NY.
The basic idea is to create a pedestrian village which maintains open space and agricultural land within the urban area, by densely clustering housing in appropriate-sized neighborhoods. It is thought that the EVI site can eventually accommodate 4-5 such neighborhoods. The Danish Cohousing model is being used as a taking off point. In cohousing, households cooperate to design, build and manage their neighborhood. Key aspects of cohousing are a Common House where meals can be shared, and pedestrian-oriented commons areas. The development of the ecovillage will hopefully correspond to an increasing proportion of the resident's energy and materials needs being met by on-site or local sources. A big step has already been taken - West Haven Farm, a 3-acre organic CSA farm, has been operating on the EVI land for five years.
Development Guidelines
for EVI were created in Land Use Planning workshops by over 100 persons,
including future residents, architects, landscape architects, students,
professors, planners, ecologists and energy experts. Ideas for future implementation
include orcharding, agroforestry, aquaculture, on-site biological wastewater
treatment, greywater recycling, and a Visitor/Education Center. Currently
there are educational programs in ecology and agriculture at EVI for local
youth. Agriculture is a major component of the
EVI vision. A recent project of EVI/CRESP was the 3rd International EcoCity Conference in Yoff, Senegal,
the sister-city of EVI. Hundreds of experts and government officials from
around the globe came together to share ideas on creating and maintaining
sustainable cities and villages.
The first neighborhood is being built by EcoVillage Cohousing Cooperative, and is due to be completed in July 1997. A second neighborhood group, SoNG, is now in the planning stage, with about 16 households involved. A third project, "Neighborhood IIII" is in the early envisioning stage.
