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Fellowship for Intentional Community: Our mission is to support and promote the development of intentional communities and the evolution of cooperative culture.

Piscataquis Village Project

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Mission: compact, car-free

From www.ic.org/directory/piscataquis-village-project/:


This proposal is to create a compact, car-free, village of 125 acres, on a site totaling 500 acres in southern Piscataquis County, Maine, USA. Development of the site would be guided by a set of zoning and building covenants specifically composed to create a space, as it is built out, to resemble traditional villages of Europe and early North America, in which foot or bicycle was the primary or sole method of transportation. This site would be declared a car-free zone. Motor vehicles would be parked at the perimeter of the development in a green belt of at least 375 acres, which would also be acquired as part of this project. The green belt, other than the area designated for vehicle parking, would also be a zone for allotment gardens, small scale agriculture, playing fields, outdoor recreation and park-like green space.

In place of building ordinances, typical of most areas, which require setbacks from the edges of the lot, would be "zero-lot line" ordinances making for connected buildings with common walls that front directly on the sidewalk. Streets would be narrower and human scaled. Buildings would have a 4 story height limitation and be constructed in such a way as to create arcaded, covered sidewalks. Small squares or plazas would be set through the development, which would become neighborhood centers and meeting places.

The site would be defined as a medium density, residential/mixed use development allowing an average density of 35 to 50 building lots per acre. Buildings, due to their close proximity to each other (typically town house /row house style), would be of masonry construction to meet a strict fire-proof standard. Ordinances typical of Maine towns requiring car parking spaces for businesses and residences would not be required, and commercial space on the ground floor of residences would be allowed and encouraged.

Our vision is modest: to secure a site, obtain regulatory approval for a medium density/ mixed used development, map out a basic physical structure of streets, plazas and building lots, compose a set of building covenants appropriate to a human scaled, car-free settlement, and let it organically, incrementally evolve. Those people or groups of people that wish to pursue their own, various versions of the Good Life within the bounds of the Village are welcome.

At present, we have "contingent investment" pledges from 42 households totaling $475,000.

Address
Physical Address
1 Main ST
Piscataquis County, Maine 04426
United States