About three months ago, when I first started thinking about this concept, I wanted to call the village an Experimental Community of Tomorrow, or EPCOT, but then I remembered that someone else had already taken that name. Since some of the homes in the village will be made available for those seeking a new lease on life, I came up with the idea to call it a Phoenix Village where occupants can, figuratively speaking, burn their old lives and start over.
As I now conceive it to be, each village will be a gated community of 300 housing units containing 700 bedrooms with a nominal population of 1,000 people. Of these, 240 living units are identified as conventional real estate for sale through local brokers with 30 reserved for rentals and 30 targeted for charitable lease to candidates recommended by nonprofit organizations including, but not limited to Habitats for Humanity.
The housing units will consist of 10 identical modules with each containing 30 housing units and 70 bedrooms. Each module is arranged in a truncated "A" shape of three stories, with one, two, three, and four bedroom units interspersed among the three levels. There is a physical separation between the sets of ground level housing units in the interior of the "A" with the breadth of the "A" adjusted so as to create space to provide parking for all 30 units.
A domed community center is sized to accommodate the villagers in their normal shopping, dining, entertainment, spiritual, educational, recreational, health care, and business life with enough excess space for 2,000 visitors/customers.

On the outer perimeter, a greenhouse shaped like a bicycle tire is sized to provide for the lion's share of the food requirements of the village with an excess available for sale to the outlying areas.
Public parking, a waste treatment complex, a recycling facility, an energy plant, and athletic fields are beyond the greenhouse.
Villager parking will be in the housing modules but transportation about the village will be by foot with electric carts used by the handicapped and for heavy loads.
I am developing three conceptual arrangements for the village. In the first the community center is surrounded by a park, which is surrounded by housing units, which is surrounded by another park, which is encircled by the greenhouse. In the second the community center extends out to the encircling housing units with the units on the community center side opening directly into the community center. In the third the housing modules are placed like spokes on a bicycle wheel connecting to both the community center and the encircling greenhouse with the housing units parking areas opening directly into the community center.
These villages will be initially outfitted, and continuously updated, with the latest and best technology so as to seek energy self-sufficiency through insulation, solar cells, windmills, and generating electricity by burning village trash and greenhouse biomass and food self-sufficiency through mechanisms such as greenhouse farming, a hydroponics facility, and enclosed fish/chicken/rabbit farming. Financial self-sufficiency will be sought through businesses in the community center soliciting customers from the general public.
Money to build a Phoenix Village will be acquired by selling 80% of the housing units to the general public who want to live in such a sustainable community; by grants awarded through the nonprofit entity (either The Phoenix Development Society or the Roots and Wings Foundation); by banks loaning money to the Phoenix Village, set up as a legal entity to acquire financing in this manner; and by donations from those foundations, businesses, and the general public who agree with the function of allocating 10% of the housing units as a place to which the abandoned, the jobless, the homeless, the suicidal, the hopeless, and others without positive prospects for their future can go for a new lease on life. The remaining 10% of the housing units will be financed through bank loans and made available for short term rentals, thus permitting the general public to participate for a short time in the life style of a village.
The full expectation is that those villagers accepted on a charitable basis will pay their own way by taking an active role in completing the Phoenix Village through helping to construct the housing units and encircling greenhouse, tending the agricultural products within it, and providing the labor to complete the remainder of the village, after which they will join the work force in jobs necessary to service the village. To the extent that they fail to become productive members of the community, they will be asked to leave the village.
Phoenix Villages will be non-sectarian but the library in the community center will contain books from all persuasions including, but not limited to Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Gaians, Humanists, Evolutionary Humanists, Agnostics, and Atheists. A meeting room can be reserved in the community center by anyone of any persuasion to give services and/or lectures on their viewpoint but each villager can elect to attend or not, as he or she sees fit. In short, all people, from Atheists to Fundamentalists (Moslems or Christians), will be invited to participate in and help grow Phoenix Villages.
Phoenix Cities, either land based or floating, will be pre-engineered for a nominal population of 100,000 and will be based on a combination of a Stanford Torus space settlement and Old Man River City of Buckminster Fuller. Phoenix Settlements in space will be designed for a nominal population of ten million and Phoenix Missions to other solar systems designed for a nominal population of one billion. Phoenix Villages and Cities will be front and center for about the next 100 years with the first Phoenix Mission not contemplated for many hundreds, and maybe even thousands, of years.
Eighty percent of the construction budget of the nonprofit venture will be used to design, build, operate, and maintain Phoenix Villages. This percentage will continue until 10,000 are in operation world wide. Fifteen percent of the construction budget will be used to design and develop Phoenix Cities and the remaining used on Phoenix Settlements and Missions. As soon as 10,000 Phoenix Villages are operational the percentages will flip with 80% used on Phoenix Cities until 100 are designed and built and 15% on the continuing development of Phoenix Villages. After 100 Phoenix Cities are in operation, each of the four standard designs will be allocated 10% of the construction budget with the remaining 60% distributed among the four as determined by vote of the membership. I expect it will be at least 100 years before this point will be reached.
I still need to determine a manner in which members can live in a home in any village, city, or settlement and, if so moved, transfer in an equitable manner to a different village, city, or settlement. I am not too concerned about Phoenix Missions. I want them identified in the paperwork but, practically speaking, it will be hundreds to thousands of years before their construction will be an issue. Of course, practically speaking, it will be 100 years before Phoenix Settlements will be an issue so that is the reason for giving heavy initial concentration to villages and cities.
"Nice Start. (snip) But there is more to it than that and I think there are at least 7
more things (snip):

1. Practice Right Livelihood and giving of your time and resources
to the projects you believe in taking care of everyone and
everything that needs to be done.

2. Engage in Watershed Restoration work of all kinds including
helping people learn how ecosystems work, and how to fit our lives
and our energies and resources back into our own communities and
ecosystems.

3. Support Learning Sustainable Living by example and by showing
people how to do things with locally available materials and how to
assume responsibility for the living Earth in all our decisions.

4. Help those who are creating Restorative human communities and
helping people who may need some direction to find their own path
towards becoming part of the many solutions that now do need to be
implemented if we are going to survive the next 300 years without
losing the thread of what it was that we were doing here.

5. Begin creating our own Earth Friendly lifestyles in human scale
communities and naturally harmonious technologies.

6. Assuming responsibility for the socio-ecological consequences of
the money we spend and reinvest that in the Earth. What are we
supporting by what we buy and what we don't buy?

7. We need to need to be able to save our money so we can invest our
time and our resources into our own people and support some of the
more progressive people within our own local communities."
While I personally believe in all of these points, I am not going to include even my personal philosophy of Evolutionary Humanism as a part of the Bylaws or in the Mission Statement so I am therefore absolutely not going to include this belief/philosophy, or any other, for that matter. The seven points could be placed in the library and anyone so inclined could use a room in the library designed for that purpose to give public lectures on them, as could the adherent of any belief or philosophy. But notice that I added Gaians to the growing list of explicitly stated beliefs/philosophies because I think Gaia best embodies these seven points.
I will not include any philosophy or belief in the ByLaws or Mission Statement because I read somewhere (it might or might not be true) that two percent of the population are in Science and Technology and ninety five percent of these are Atheists, Agnostics, or Humanists. I do not want the words in the organizational literature to alienate this segment of over 100 million people, especially since it is exactly people with this background who will design the structures, systems, and components used in the villages, cities, settlements, and missions under discussion. Therefore, the Bylaws and Mission Statement will be very bland and innocuous, referring only to a goal to design, build, operate, and maintain sustainable villages with a nominal population of one thousand, sustainable cities with a nominal population of one hundred thousand, settlements in space with a nominal population of ten million, and missions to other solar systems with a nominal population of one billion.
T, I hope this is responsive to your post.
Best regards,

Leon Neihouse

Thanks for that info.

What you sent is very similar to the nominal 100,000 population Phoenix
City I hope to build. My plan is to set the first one up in an OTEC zone
in the Pacific, so we should not be competing with each other. I would
be happy to start a dialogue with you on the problems and opportunities
that we are both sure to encounter.

Of course, money is always the number one priority. Primary funding for
this first Phoenix City is expected to come from sale of housing units
to the rich and famous. My plan is to build several of the much smaller
(1,000 nominal population) Phoenix Villages in Maine and get seed money
for the first Phoenix City from this source.

I hope to be incorporated with 501(c )(3) tax deductible status by the
end of the year, have construction of the first Phoenix Village underway
a year later, and have started construction of the first Phoenix City
five years after that.

I will be posting information on startup details on a periodic basis to
the Yahoo Group identified below.

I hope this is responsive to your questions.

Leon

Thanks for that info.

What you sent is very similar to the nominal 100,000 population Phoenix
City I hope to build. My plan is to set the first one up in an OTEC zone
in the Pacific, so we should not be competing with each other. I would
be happy to start a dialogue with you on the problems and opportunities
that we are both sure to encounter.

Of course, money is always the number one priority. Primary funding for
this first Phoenix City is expected to come from sale of housing units
to the rich and famous. My plan is to build several of the much smaller
(1,000 nominal population) Phoenix Villages in Maine and get seed money
for the first Phoenix City from this source.

I hope to be incorporated with 501(c )(3) tax deductible status by the
end of the year, have construction of the first Phoenix Village underway
a year later, and have started construction of the first Phoenix City
five years after that.

I will be posting information on startup details on a periodic basis to
the Yahoo Group identified below.

I hope this is responsive to your questions.

Leon

I will follow up with details off line. I hope to send more info to
you sometime tomorrow.

Leon

>
> that should be fun
>
> why the pacific?
>
> would you like to see more? been working on this since late 70s
> accumulating contacts , ideas, resources etc.
>
> My funding was through basic mortgages... self liquidating ...do
you have a phone?
>
> Thanks for that info.
>
> What you sent is very similar to the nominal 100,000 population
Phoenix
> City I hope to build. My plan is to set the first one up in an
OTEC zone
> in the Pacific, so we should not be competing with each other. I
would
> be happy to start a dialogue with you on the problems and
opportunities
> that we are both sure to encounter.
>
> Of course, money is always the number one priority. Primary
funding for
> this first Phoenix City is expected to come from sale of housing
units
> to the rich and famous. My plan is to build several of the much
smaller
> (1,000 nominal population) Phoenix Villages in Maine and get seed
money
> for the first Phoenix City from this source.
>
> I hope to be incorporated with 501(c )(3) tax deductible status
by the
> end of the year, have construction of the first Phoenix Village
underway
> a year later, and have started construction of the first Phoenix
City
> five years after that.
>
> I will be posting information on startup details on a periodic
basis to
> the Yahoo Group identified below.
>
> I hope this is responsive to your questions.
>
> Leon
>
> > so what kind of start up funds do you have?
> >
> > for acquiring property?
> >
> > interesting...
> >
> > :-))
> >
> > I'm sending you a bit that you may find similar...
> >
> > best!!
> >
> > Some people in this forum might be interested in the attached
post I

I will follow up with details off line. I hope to send more info to
you sometime tomorrow.

Leon

>
> that should be fun
>
> why the pacific?
>
> would you like to see more? been working on this since late 70s
> accumulating contacts , ideas, resources etc.
>
> My funding was through basic mortgages... self liquidating ...do
you have a phone?
>
> Thanks for that info.
>
> What you sent is very similar to the nominal 100,000 population
Phoenix
> City I hope to build. My plan is to set the first one up in an
OTEC zone
> in the Pacific, so we should not be competing with each other. I
would
> be happy to start a dialogue with you on the problems and
opportunities
> that we are both sure to encounter.
>
> Of course, money is always the number one priority. Primary
funding for
> this first Phoenix City is expected to come from sale of housing
units
> to the rich and famous. My plan is to build several of the much
smaller
> (1,000 nominal population) Phoenix Villages in Maine and get seed
money
> for the first Phoenix City from this source.
>
> I hope to be incorporated with 501(c )(3) tax deductible status
by the
> end of the year, have construction of the first Phoenix Village
underway
> a year later, and have started construction of the first Phoenix
City
> five years after that.
>
> I will be posting information on startup details on a periodic
basis to
> the Yahoo Group identified below.
>
> I hope this is responsive to your questions.
>
> Leon
>
> > so what kind of start up funds do you have?
> >
> > for acquiring property?
> >
> > interesting. ..
> >
> > :-))
> >
> > I'm sending you a bit that you may find similar...
> >
> > best!!
> >
> > Some people in this forum might be interested in the attached
post I