Intentional Community in Indiana

http://www.armoryparkdelsol.com

Quote:

I subscribe to Cottage Living magazine and they are always talking about communities like this. I've never seen one quite like this one, but here's the top ten list they had in the most recent issue.
1. Forest Hills Gardens, Queens, NY www.foresthillsrealestate.com
2. Ohio City, Cleveland, OH www.ohiocity.com
3. Daybreak, Salt Lake City, UT www.daybreakutah.com
4. Fields of St Croix, Lake Elmo, MN www.engstromco.com/prev_fields.html
5. The Bungalow Belt, Chicago, IL www.chicagobungalow.org
6. Edenton Mill Village, Edenton, NC www.edentoncottonmill.com/themill.html
7. High Point, Seattle, WA www.thehighpoint.com
8. The poplar community, Boulder, Co www.wlarch.com/projects/poplar.html
9. Armory Park Del Sol, Tuscon, AZ armoryparkdelsol.com
10. Cottage Square, Ocean Springs, MS www.cottagesquare.net

I glanced at all the pages and some of them are pretty expensive.

I find that list interesting, but I'm not sure most of those communities are really what you'd be looking for. The one in NC has mostly 800K plus homes and my parents live in the Day Break community in UT in a 500K home and I know most of the people in that community are not the type that care about green or alternitive living. It is set up really cool and my parents love it, but way more conventional then I would like. They plan to put over 7000 homes in there...YIKES!!

I just started a yahoo group today for people looking to find good homesteading communities. I hope to connect the old pro homesteaders that want like minded people & friends in their communities and the families looking for a good place to homestead. I often hear from families that are homesteading now that they wish their kids (& themselves) had more friends. And I hear from families wanting to homestead, but not wanting be out there all alone. This way new families will hopefully know at least one family that lives nearby. You can check it out at..... http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homesteadingcommunities/

Remember I just started this TODAY so pass the word and join & post what you are looking for or how great your little piece of heaven is and see what happens!

Something about a "planned" community just goes against the grain of independent living.

I agree that most of these communities seem to cater to the 'double-professional income suburban armchair homesteader' who likes the fantasy of homesteading, but would never be caught dead actually getting their hands dirty. They probably believe that by living in that type of community, they are "doing their part" simply by being there. But they still drive their 6 month old SUV to the grocery store 5 miles away whenever they run out of some sort of chemical cleaner or processed food, they still run the air conditioning all year to keep the house a constant 75 degrees, and they still throw away 1000 pounds of trash each year. They just do it all in a "natural setting" and consider themselves "green" because the SUV has the best mileage in its class, the air conditioner has the energy star logo, and they recycle their empty bleach containers.

Give any of them a bucket and a cow and see how well they do.

What turned me on to this village in particular is the diversity of the sites and opportunities. Personally, I don't want to be a "total" homesteading family, everyone who wants to live in some sort of community isn't always looking in that direction. If we bought a house at this community, I would prefer to not have alot of land, instead to use the common property.

As a midwife, mom to 5, homeschooler, and everything else we do as a family, something has to give. For us, it meant moving into a development so we didn't have to spend our free time with yard/animal/farm=type commitments.

I did talk with the couple and the businesses/jobs/descriptions are based on what others have mentioned, they have family camping trips every few months, and are suggestions, ideas, brainstorming, not set in stone.

If anyone following this knows of other communities or community type places that are open to large families (most I have looked at only have a handful of children, aren't accepting new families, or all live in one house, which would not work for us), pm me or post here.

Also, has anyone tried to recreate this ideas in a normal town/community, like the co=ops with horses, hens, community building, something like that. that would be great to learn more about something like that, something we can also try to do in our communities.