After a pretty intense two year development period, members have earned a good long rest. And that is what happened---we spent precious time enjoying our new houses, reclaiming social lives! etc after the full-on construction process. The general meeting schedule has slackened considerably but the community has instituted twice weekly optional common meals, which are just great after a busy day. Whilst people as a generalisation hibernated a bit through the winter/post construction period, a group facilitator/process whiz was enagaged to run a series of 6 reflection sessions. Margo Woods helped us look at what it meant to live here now, reflect on the joys and patch up the stresses of the development period. It was useful for the neighbourhood folk to experience and hear about different experiences, boundaries and, well, stuff like that.
After a fair measure of discussion with Waitakere City Council, council acknowledged that the environmental and open space acheivments of Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood should be recognised in the level of the reserves contributions. Normally any housing development must pay 6% of developed land value toward councils cost of providing reserves.
We wanted to show that for medium density housing to attain any sort of sound sustainable basis, open space is essential, essential for food growing, catching and treating water, and for recreation. For those interested Peter's final "letter" to council is here (pdf, 19 pages, 287Kb).
Stage I of Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood is in the last couple of weeks of construction. By the end of June there will be 17 households living on site, and we are already welcoming new members for Stage II.
The departure of the contractors will allow us to take total possession and attend to landscaping and other body corp matters.
While the planned common house is part of stage 2, we are making use of an existing house on site for common meals, meetings and other gatherings.
There has been lots of interest and discussion regarding the eco-services. Residents have noted the effects that seasonal changes, things like rainfall and sunshine, have on eco-house systems. Our first batch of power and water readings are emerging, and showing every sign of realising the fruits of our design efforts with great reductions from the cost in our previous homes.
The bollard 'street lights' are now installed, and they run from dusk to midnight, but the timer is programable by the hour or day, and, well... lets just say there is likely to be some ongoing discussion about the timing ;-)
On the people front, several recently joined new members now means that on the age spectrum between 0 and 85, we now have members in every 5 year age bracket. That’s an achievement we can be proud of, but again no surprise, given that we designed it that way!
Over the last several months we have built a strong relationship with Prometheus (www.prometheus.co.nz), an ethical investment firm based in Hastings. We are pleased to see Prometheus is a growing orgnanisation as they have been helpful with our unique funding needs.
While there are always a few things we'd do differently next time, the houses are proving cosy and peaceful. A couple of room-for-rent opportunities are emerging. Indeed, perhaps a rare oppurtunity to "flat" in NZ's first cohousing Eco-Neighbourhhood!
Stage one being sold out, work can begin on stage 2.
Over the summer break C+D block households moved into their homes amidst much excitement, and the usual clutter of boxes and remedial to-do lists of uncompleted items. A further 4 households in E block also moving in this month wil bring the installed households to 10. It takes quite a bit of getting used to to stop seeing the site as a "project" and start seeing it as home. The homes have been very comfortable in the hot weather, and the water and energy systems are working wonderfully. We are currently looking at options to install monitering equipment. Can you help?
Now the landscaping challenge begins: watch out in the middle of the year for an Earthsong slot on Maggies garden show! The area between C+D block will be transformed into a permaculture / people /child friendly node. The pond will also be planted this Autumn.