OK, I admit it. I wasn’t actually at the Zoning Hearing on Monday. My family and I were on vacation at Disneyworld, and appointments between children and Mickey cannot be denied. Don’t worry; I also did research at Epcot, checking their hydroponics and aquaculture set-ups for potential future use at the ecovillage.
In spite of my absence, things went incredibly well. The short version of the story is that due to a minor issue in the technical proceedings, the Board of Supervisors did not vote on our amendment. However, this is something that our legal counsel expected, and it just means that we will do a second hearing later this summer. The fantastic part of it all was the audience; please accept our huge and heartfelt thank you to all of our supporters who showed up and said incredibly kind and wonderful things.
I am very eager to attend the next hearing, but here’s the gist of what happened.
The Zoning Hearing is a formal legal proceeding, with witnesses sworn in and exhibits presented. The township counsel introduced the proceedings, and then our legal counsel took over the presentation with a summary of the changes to zoning that we proposed. The version of the zoning amendment that was under formal consideration was from May, even though there were changes in June, and this was the issue with the technical proceedings that meant that the Supervisors could not vote at the end of all of this.
Our developer Sandy Wiggins, was sworn in as a witness, and presented information on what an ecovillage is, and why changes to zoning were needed. He also discussed why this is the perfect site for an ecovillage, and how we want our zoning amendment to be a model ordinance that can be replicated in other municipalities. Strangely enough, we got a call this very week from a forming ecovillage in Hawaii, wanting to learn more about what we were doing with zoning. I will be thrilled if what we learn can be of assistance there. Zoning is one of the biggest challenges to ecovillages, but once that hurdle is passed, these types of communities quickly become very successful.
After the presentation, the Supervisors asked some questions for clarification, including a request for a list of communities like ours. (See the Directory at Cohousing and the Global Ecovillage Network search for ecovillages.) Then the fun began.
We estimated 50-60 people in the audience. One after the other, our wonderful supporters stood up and told the Board of Supervisors what an amazing opportunity they had to be national leaders in the future of residential green construction. They were more eloquent and profuse in their praise than I could ever be. We had supporters who had visited multiple ecovillages and could attest to how successful they were. We had supporters who asked probing questions and offered potential solutions to the challenges we are having implementing leading edge solutions to sewage treatment. We even had supporters we didn’t know we had—my little bird confessed that he didn’t recognize some of the people who came to speak on our behalf.
What’s next? We make sure we incorporate any last adjustments to the amendment, go through proper process with the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors, and then have another Hearing. We’ll need all of you wonderful people to come to the next Zoning Hearing, probably in August. This time I promise that even Mickey Mouse won’t get in my way of being there.
