CitiesGoGreen - February 2009 - (Page 16) People can buy in, both literally and metaphorically, to a carbon-neutral, ready-made eco-life simply by moving to to these communities. chickens and bees. Some of the produce in the farmer’s market will be very local. A good way to get a sense of the extraordinary scale and vision of the Coddings’ idea is to walk across the parking lot of a big box store mall or office park for five minutes, and imagine eight story livework loft buildings and townhouses where you started walking, and rural houses with chickens and bees where you end up. We have had nothing like it on this continent, yet this is how medieval villages developed. Many towns in Europe still have this sort of variety, which may be one reason Europeans weigh less than Americans and have half the carbon footprint. Local jobs It will take 4,400 people just to build the town—twice the number of jobs the site formerly provided. After construction is complete, by the town’s charter every job within the community must be offered to residents first, and 25% of the space in the 50,000 sq. ft. grocery store will be set aside for local products. Below: The site of Sonoma Mountain Village, North America’s first One Planet Community That’s a pretty radical idea, but as Moore said, “[T]he Coddings learned from the first certified One Planet community in England, where they found that once people left the town, they became in effect ‘3 1/2 planet people’ again, like everyone else in England. And for us, self-sufficient design is even more crucial, because once we leave this One Planet town, we are in the American economy—needing even more planets!” The “offer jobs to residents first” idea will be agreed to by each restaurant, store and business wanting to locate in the community when it is built, and even the ones already there. Community jobs will be further supported by the 30,000 sq. ft. business incubator supporting local start ups, the telecommute center, allowing workers the tools to work remotely, and the many live-work lofts. The numerous and varied local enterprises will tend to create a self-sufficient, solar-powered oasis in the event of disasters. The town is being constructed in the steel prefab factory in the center of town, which will still provide jobs after the town is built. Inset: The recycled steel used in all buildings is from the town’s steel prefab factory, which will provide jobs even after the town is complete. Six SUVs worth of locally recycled steel goes into every 2,000 sq. ft. of the housing being built. Steel framing is more lightweight than wood framing, which reduces the amount of concrete foundation required and further reduces carbon emissions. Even the funding mechanism is sustainable. The current commercial tenants in what will be the center of town, such as Comcast and an eco-business incubator, provide ongoing rental income that funds a gentle pace of construction over the next 12 years, and they will get a complete revamp to zero carbon along the way. “The positive is that some buildings can be used while the planning is going on,” Hall explained. “It has industrial onsite that not only supports the project financially but also provides development material, thereby decreasing the carbon footprint demands for those materials.” v Susan Kraemer is a freelance writer who loves to publicize innovative solutions to climate change that we can implement now. She also works with Fresco Solar. 16 February/March 2009 http://www.CitiesGoGreen.com
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