Creating Community
(Page 3 of 8)
June/July 2003
By Dan Chiras and Diana Leafe Christian
FROG AND SONG
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Cohousing lies at the heart of Ecovillage at Ithaca, which currently consists of two 30-household neighborhoods with a common house, each on 3 1/2 acres. In the first neighborhood, known as FRoG (First Residents Group), a short pedestrian walkway winds among the flowers, herbs, small fruit trees and shady trellises nestled between two rows of russet-colored two-story duplexes.
Forty-five households currently live in two of three planned small, densely clustered neighborhoods two and a half miles from downtown Ithaca. Residents live in energy-efficient, passive-solar homes, recycle almost everything they use, share ownership of their common facilities and make community decisions by consensus. Half the adult wage-earners work at least part-time on site, in home offices or rented offices in the common house. They carpool extensively. participate in car-sharing and ride the bus, having successfully lobbied the local bus company to make a stop by their entry- road.
The large, two-story common house sits at the entrance to the village. Here, residents gather together to cook and dine several nights a week. Some also wash their clothes in the shared laundry room, and let their teens socialize in a sound-proofed hangout room enhanced by a music system. A children's playroom with tumbling mats and large pillows also is used for yoga, meditation, meetings and classes.
Homes in the village receive passive solar gain through 14-foot-high, triple-glazed window-walls. Although the neighborhood currently uses grid power, the south sides of the gable roofs are pitched at just the right angle for the photovoltaic panels they'll add in the future. Clusters of six to eight homes are linked through underground conduits to a central utility room with two natural-gas-fired boilers that supply zoned radiant heat and hot water to each home. This decreases energy use and utility metering costs, keeps combustion byproducts out of the homes and will allow easy retrofitting to solar hot water heating in the future. Residents conserve water through 1 1/2-gallon toilets and low-flow faucets, and by watering their heavily mulched gardens only during the coolest part of the day. With simple energy conservation measures and wise use, Ecovillage at Ithaca residents consume just 39 percent of the electric power, 41 percent of the natural gas and 22 percent of the water used by the average household in the northeastern United States.
SoNG (Second Neighborhood Group), still under construction, is similar, except some of the individual homes are powered by solar panels and have composting toilets and heat-recovery ventilators. Fifteen homes are built and occupied; the neighborhood will be complete when 30 households are in residence.
At Ecovillage at Ithaca, sustainability goes beyond the home, too. Residents have established a large community garden, and chickens and sheep occupy a 3-acre meadow. Several members have established an organic community supported agriculture (CSA) farm, producing everything from greens to beans. Future plans include building a biological wastewater treatment facility and greywater recycling system; creating a village center for dances, classes, performances and sports; establishing a U-pick organic berry farm and orchards; and building a village cemetery.
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