VIRTUAL VILLAGE HOMES
by Karen Schell

Incited by neighbor Jay Baldwin, former contributing editor of the Whole Earth review, eleven individuals participating in the Sustainable Petaluma Network decided to carpool up to Davis to take a look at Mike and Judy Corbett's ecological development, "Village Homes", now a wise 25 years old. Village Homes is one of the first residential developments to step towards the pattern of connectedness and resource efficiency prevalent in ecological building. It was here that we hoped to begin answering the question for ourselves – What is community and ecology based development like? – so that we might bring it into our own place in the upper San Francisco Bay Area. What we found at Village Homes was a quality of life that far exceeds that of the conventional subdivision, not in the usual sense of "luxury living", (though it does feel luxurious) but in the sense of peace, beauty, practicality and community.

The semi-hidden homes blend into the lush green landscaping, much of it edible, and no electric wires or antennas are visible. Not only do residents enjoy dramatically lower energy bills than their neighboring communities, they live in a neighborhood where their kids can walk or ride a bike across the entire 250 home development without ever crossing a street. They have created a cooler micro-climate than the surrounding Davis area, and to top it off, teenagers like it there, according to sources at the local high school. So our question is already beginning to be answered: an ecological development exemplifies a desire to do the right thing for the biosphere, but more than that, it's also a great neighborhood to live in.

Looking at the different design factors that established these redeeming features, we see that an ecological development specifically considers the land and interaction of its inhabitants in its design. It designs structures, streets and every other aspect of development with the climate, resource load, geographical features of the place and human scale needs as navigators. What a concept!

Our group strolls along a shady foot and bike path with our guide and community resident, Virginia Thigpen, who helped design the neighborhood with the Corbetts 25 years ago. On either side of us are people's front yards and homes, barely visible. Tree canopies in the yards end at eye level, making it difficult to check out someone's home, much less see into it. This allows Village Homes residents great privacy, even while front doors face each other across the bike/footpath and outdoor community area, an area which affords the residents opportunities to meet. Though each homeowner has purchased their own lot, no fences divide them and the effect is one of openness. I am reminded of those Southern neighborhoods, where fences don't separate neighbors. (The source of Southern hospitality?) Well placed vegetation replaces the need for fences here. At Thigpen's house, an outdoor patio in the yard has short trees on the path side so one can see out through the branches while sitting at the table, but people can't readily see in so you don't feel "on display". Fences tend to send a message of "go away", she explains, while vegetation gets the job done, but kindly. "This is our home and community, we want to live comfortably with each other," adds Thigpen.

Access to the community has been designed in from the beginning. The operative word here is access. Not everyone wants to commune with their neighbors all the time, but not everyone wants NO contact either. In most developments, the only option is relative isolation; brief waves as you pull out in your car or awkward trips into the neighbor's private yard (where dogs may await) to attempt contact. At Village Homes, residents have a choice. "You can be as communal and outgoing as you want to be, or step back to your private garden." says John, a resident.

Dwellings in the 250 unit development are laid out in groups of eight households. Each group is designed like the traditional street of houses, with the exception that the front yards are used as common areas and the "street" between them is a pedestrian/bike path. Households communicate about their common areas and decide how they want them to be. Some of these areas are child oriented. Some have gardens or a pond or picnic area. These outdoor landscapes are an aesthetic way to design in the possibility of meeting, without forcing or deterring it.

Have a car? Not to worry, there is still a place for them. Car oriented streets in a green development like Village Homes are located at the back of the house, sort of like alleys, with carports and garbage cans located there. (No hauling the can down the driveway every Wednesday) These back streets are more narrow than usual, 22-24 feet wide. They were specifically planned with the hot Davis climate in mind. In the summer, less asphalt gives off less heat and trees chosen for their shading abilities offer protection from the sun, so Village Homes is a good 10-15 degrees cooler in the summer than the surrounding areas of Davis. That's a big difference when it's 100 degrees! Narrower streets encourage slower driving, making even the streets safe for the activities of kids. "There's also a whole lot less crime," says Thigpen, "Because of the layout, if someone drives down the street that doesn't belong, you notice and they are aware that you're noticing."

Continuing with our journey along the path, we pass people out walking, and families on bikes roll by contentedly. Soon we discover that these paths constitute the main transportation network of this place, and connect into the extensive Davis bike paths. Residents can ride to downtown Davis, the University, even downtown Sacramento from here, and they do. Having the place linked on a human scale not only within itself, but into the rest of the community is a very important design aspect of the neighborhood.

Residents in an ecological development like Village Homes pay half the energy costs of those in conventional developments. How? Not by sitting in the dark and cold, but by living in structures that have been designed with the natural elements of the region in mind. All the property lines run solar North South. Lots are around 40-50 ft. wide and 80 feet deep. The narrow lots encourage homes to have windows on the north and south sides, the best locations for them in the warm Davis climate. Climate was a primary factor, along with other regional individualities, in the design process of the homes. This is something development usually doesn't address, preferring instead to crank out exactly the same house in Sacramento, Chicago, Minneapolis or Dallas, evening out the differences with energy-gobbling heating and/or cooling systems that use fuel as a crutch to offset an inefficient and generic structure design. This same problem exists in office buildings, where windows often don't even open, no matter what the climate or circumstance.

Here in the Davis climate, what Virginia calls "the thermal bottle" approach is used in some of the homes, emphasizing insulation to keep cool in the summer. Wall insulation in her home is blown in cellulose R21. Ceilings have R30. Nowadays, R levels can be even higher, with R38 as standard. Thigpen's home makes efficient use of daylighting (skylights and strategically placed windows), a solar water heater and solar heating via a radiant floor system. In a radiant floor system, (prevalent in European apartments) solar heated water runs through pipes beneath the floor, warming the house from the feet up when it's cold outside. In Thigpen's home, a valve turns to release cold water into the pipes, creating a cool floor to walk across in the summer. Over the years, some homes have added partial air conditioning, but it is extremely minimal compared to the rest of Davis. Some homes enjoy attached greenhouses that can circulate heated air to the rest of the house in the wintertime.

Along each path between homes is a creekway. "Nice touch," I think, as we cross a small wooden bridge. But landscaping at Village Homes turns out to be much more than decorative. The creek is actually called a swale and is the equivalent of a storm drain (but much more low tech and much more beautiful). Stormwater flows down these "creeks" in the winter and spring, and allows excess runoff water to sink back into the water table beneath the development, rather than whisking it away in pipes. "Water doesn't leave Village Homes," says Thigpen, "Often it even takes it from the city." In an era of declining water tables, the positive results of this feature alone are reason enough to begin developing more ecologically. There no pipes to clog or fill up and the graceful system works simply to accomplish its task, contouring the land to collect this precious element. Different areas of the neighborhood are landscaped into these creeks or into shallow lakes or ponds. Many parts of the low-tech system are just lower parts of the lawn that become ponds in the winter. But does it work? And how does it look? Village Homes has been successfully absorbing its water for 25 years. And as far as aesthetics go, one street liked their temporary pond so well, they created a permanent one in their common area.

"A lot of the landscaping is edible" says Thigpen, as someone hands me an orange picked from a tree on the side of the path. Food is everywhere; figs, apples, grapes, kiwis. Kids can snack right in their play areas. Any resident can pick fruit or vegetables in the green belt common areas, while the produce that may be grown in the eight home cluster areas belongs to those families that grow it. There are a few vineyards and orchards scattered around the place owned collectively by the Homeowners Association. Someone recently made a wine from these grapes named "Village Red".

Village Homes is not only detached single family residential. The Homeowners' Association owns the commercial buildings, which include a restaurant owned by the Corbetts, twelve offices, a ballet studio and a couple of apartments on the top floors. The "commercial district", as its called, is small. Given another chance, the community says it would have been a larger part of the development.

My ears perk up at the thought of the top floor apartments over the offices. These apartments would seem to afford the non homeowner type a chance to live here too. They aren't the only apartments here; near the Village Green, there is a group of lush vegetation-covered, garden surrounded apartments with greenhouses built on the South sides to collect heat. Besides that, an ultra-low income housing alternative is the Co-Op. Mostly students live in the eight person unit, owned by the Homeowners Association. $350 a month gets some lucky college kids their rent, utilities and food. "There's always something going on at the Co-Op," says Alison Pernell, Land Use Coordinator at the Local Government Commission, an agency that helps governments adapt
to ecological developments in their areas. "A place like the Co-Op is a way to incorporate young people and they have their friends around all the time." Besides the apartments and Co-Op, near the single family dwellings themselves are smaller cottages built initially for elderly parents, but which have lately become lower cost housing for singles and small families. I notice that even though we are in a "densely" developed neighborhood, every window has a beautiful view of lush greenery outside, as if you were in an isolated forest, and not a street full of homes! "Density is tricky," says Pernell of the negative connotations that high density often has," it really comes down to 'How good is your design?'" And the design here is good.

Village Homes, because of its unique beauty and functionality, has ended up increasing in value over the years, but lower cost housing was planned into the mix, to allow for some diversity. Future developments could take this even further, including more balanced percentages of various kinds and sizes of housing as well as expanding the other non residential uses, forming neither an elite neighborhood, nor a housing project, nor a shopping mall, but a real live community.

Human interaction itself can not be planned into a subdivision, nor should it be. What can be planned in is the possibility of meeting each other. Many amenities in the neighborhood from potlucks to chore sharing emerge from a bunch of people living near each other, knowing each other and figuring out what would make life easier and more pleasant. For instance, sales from collectively grown garden produce at Village Homes have gone towards day care costs. A potluck is held every Sunday. Most recently, a "Caring Network" has sprung up that connects neighbors in need to those who can help in some small way. "This all becomes possible due to the physical design." Thigpen explains. These are just some of the things that can happen when people have the chance to interact with each other.

While we rest in Virginia's home and talk about the community, in walks Mike Corbett, the neighborhood's reknown designer. The scene is like one of those TV sitcoms when the famous actor walks in out of the blue making the cameo appearance, to resounding studio audience applause. While Corbett didn't receive resounding studio audience applause from our humble group, we were all very appreciative and honored to meet with him. "The idea was to replicate the traditional village of 4-500 people" Corbett says of Village Homes. "It worked because it was something that evolved. The design was in motion all the time." he explains. Village Homes enjoyed community involvement from the very beginning, with work projects being particularly good community builders, but the community's organizers are quick to point out that not everyone living there is interested in that aspect of the neighborhood. It's human nature to not have 100% participation, and how much one is able to be involved tends to fluctuate throughout one's life. "There's a place for letting go." says Thigpen. "Even the uninvolved are comfortable here."

"Now we're seeing the first generation of kids going out into the world from Village Homes. My son was appalled!" Corbett shares, of his son's experience in the "outside" housing world. "I don't think we as Americans realize how uncomfortable we are," adds Barry Bussowitz, a community activist and sociology teacher in our group. Corbett agrees, "A lot of stress comes from physical environment."

As a person wary of out-of-control growth, I am surprised to find myself ready to build a 250 unit subdivision. I justify this by realizing that it is not necessarily development itself that is so distasteful, but the insensitivity to the land being built upon. Development, as it stands now, looks only superficially at the climate, the land, its resource load. It does not ask the critical question, "What is truly appropriate for this place?"

"We live in a traditional subdivision in Santa Rosa." says one woman in our group, "It doesn't have this peaceful feeling at all." she notes. When
questions regarding the land, climate and resource load are addressed, the usual problems, frictions and disharmonies that come with development are often minimized or eliminated.

Scott Hess, another member of our sustainability network asks the question on everyone's mind, "How do we go away from the nebulous and start something like this in our own area?" Corbett's instant response is, "Find a developer and a piece of property, and talk with the planning department."

In response, a group of almost twenty interested individuals, came together the very next week to follow these simple instructions and start on the path to a more sustainable community through green development. Our original question, "What is community and ecology based development like?" has led us to people and places of inspiration and action for green development in our own area. The opportunities today are even more exciting. New technologies have emerged, older systems have been improved upon, indigenous ways of looking at landscaping and building design are being rediscovered. At the same time, communities are more receptive. In an era where a large percentage of housing is built by big developers who do not live in the area and have no reason to look at regional differences or build in access to the community, citizens are starting to ask for neighborhoods incorporating aspects of green development and building design. Development that sustains the natural landscape and its systems and forms neighborly communities is sounding more and more attractive to the mainstream these days. Corbett sums it up for us: "People come here and say it's comfortable," Our group agrees.

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