From the ECO-All-Stars~ GREEN Resources, Trends & Friends GroupJUNE CHALLENGE...YOU Design A GREEN Community…

1) Pretend you are in a position to design this LAND for use by all living things...
Human and animal and plant and yourself . . .

2) WHAT STEPS would YOU take to create an eco-village/community/conservation neighborhood here? Would you bring in landscape architects? Environmental scientists? permaculture experts? Do a botanical survey? Hydrologists? Interview and select eco-savvy architects and green builders?
Give us your process. Tell us the steps you would take if you owned 2,000+ AC and could create an eco-community there.

3) Write a post about your envisioned Green-Built Community,
 and put the LINK to your post in the comment section below.


My first thought on this was Wow, JaneAnne has done it again. What a fun and interesting idea for a challenge. The ultimate “blank sheet of paper!” Then I thought back to some conversations my wife and I have been having about green building in general. Why are we not focusing on infill land?

So in the spirit of the kid who, when given the homework of “Use this week’s spelling words in sentences.” Wrote up the sentence: “This weeks spelling words are: Bla Bla Bla, Yada yada, and antidisestablishmentarianism.”

“What, it’s a sentence and it has the words in it!” I offer this…

Set up a REIT to sell this land to 20,000 people as “Tenancy in Common” with deeded restrictions on use. Then have it documented as a protected area, and sell the environmental credit on the open market to offset some other developments’ dirty laundry.

Then take the profit and build green infill and revitalize urban areas with established transportation, economic, and work environments. Many grants, and programs private and government, will help with this and the market for these is well established and sensible with today’s fuel prices. This approach will leave the views, habitat and future of the land in an untrammeled state.

It is not as cool or fun as building a new community, but it could be the “Greenest” answer.

I am focusing on the three R’s with this, Recycle city lots, Reuse cities services, Reduce impact on undeveloped land.

What do you think?

By the way, these pictures are used with permition of Sean Parnell from his website Chicago Abandoned Lot Project

Thanks Sean!