February 11 was busy for Hart’s Millers, with several of us beginning our day with a rally and the 11th annual Forward Together and Moral March in Raleigh to reaffirm our commitment to fight social injustice at the state and national levels. We all then found our way to Eno Commons in Durham Co-housing Community for an afternoon Membership Retreat.
About 16 members ranging from seasoned to brand-new came together in the interests of cultivating and growing our membership in a variety of ways. Amy and Joe put together a terrific program with a lot of variety. One goal of our retreat was to develop our collaborative skills further, and so we bookended our other activities by pr
acticing reflective listening and working through a five-step process for discussing a conflict. Our other goals were to brainstorm ways to best support our members and to recruit members who match well with Hart’s Mill. In addition to building skills and ideas, a towering contribution was made by Anthony and his young friend.
It was wonderful to meet at this spacious common house and we extend our appreciation and gratitude to Eno Commons for being willing to provide the space for us to continue to build our own community. And many thanks to everyone who came indoors on a Saturday afternoon to attend to this vital work (and play!). 
significant time and effort from many members, the General Circle consented to four Principles and Intentions that relate to farm animals, pets, and food choices at Hart’s Mill. These P&Is offer a point of departure for working out more detailed policies and practices when relevant. Our deepest appreciation goes to everyone in the community who participated in this complex and challenging discernment process. 
So many people showed up for our 1/28 workday and/or tours that I am worried I will forget someone if I try listing everyone! Suffice it to say that all along the route from Frazier Road down to nearly the central gathering area, Hart’s Mill members and friends were at work for much of a sunny but brisk Saturday afternoon, moving brush
piles, sawing branches out of the route, sometimes from ladders, and taking down trees, hauling the cuttings back into the woods, and in general widening and clearing the road that is planned for the main community entrance.
The Land Stewardship Functional Circle is making a major push to prepare it for general use by later Spring (and it is already passable now if you hang to the north edge of the meadow and drive carefully). Soon we will enter the land down the wooded hill and then see the land spread out before us as we emerge from the trees! In the course of the afternoon there were also wildflower plantings, bark strippings, multiple tours by multiple people, reconnections with old friends and returning members, and a circle 
ceremony in 
the sun recognizing our purchase of the land and the outstanding contributions of two members. Paul Voss was honored for his signal efforts in leading the initiative to buy the land, and Jeffry Goodrum received kudos (and a flagon of beer) for his 
mighty mowing achievements. 
this spirit that Paul and I tripped off for a family visit in the California Bay Area, extending our stay to give us enough time to visit some long-standing intentional communities. Paul did the research and zeroed in on three communities north of San Francisco that have successfully operated with shared ownership models for decades: Monan’s Rill, Santa Rosa Creek Commons, and Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (Sowing Circle). Additionally, we visited an urban ecovillage called Canticle Farms in Oakland which we will write about at another time.
was a cold day and rain followed us as we wound our way up a long rise towards the village nestled in the hills. Founded in 1974 by a small group of Quaker friends, Monan’s Rill currently has 12 homes on 440 beautiful wooded acres with 16 adult members, 6 non-member residents, and 6 children. (for excellent views and descriptions, visit monansrill.org)
We were given a very warm welcome by Rick and Sue who have lived at Monan’s Rill almost since the beginning. They had done their homework on Hart’s Mill by thoroughly reading the web site, and Rick presented us with three marvelous pages of comments that he thought would be useful to us. After a lengthy discussion and a delicious lunch, we took a tour of the community and also visited the home of another long-term resident named Ken, a talented wood sculptor. We took in a lot of very useful particulars, but here are some highlights of what we learned:
We headed back to Santa Rosa amid persistent rain and darkening skies towards 
units to about 30 adult residents. There are two, multi-unit buildings which face a central courtyard, and an additional 2 houses facing the street. It is a beautiful setting and the buildings are both attractive and practical. A key organizing principle is long-term affordability. Many similar values and attitudes to Monan’s Rill are also present at SRCC and I won’t repeat them. Here is some of what we learned at SRCC:
The next morning, we traveled west to Occidental in the driving rain. We had an appointment with Dave Henson, executive director of 
cooperatively own 12 homes and 80 acres of land as well as all buildings. OAEC is a non-profit 501(c)3 which runs a farm and educational programs, leasing land and buildings from Sowing Circle, LLC. Sowing Circle, LLC, also maintains an agricultural easement for organic farming, granted at the time of founding in 1994. 
Our time with Dave was limited and we focused solely on ownership models. We returned with some new and useful perspectives on how we might legally organize Hart’s Mill Ecovillage which we will share with the community in due time. We are extremely grateful to Dave for sharing his time and expertise with us! 
her in the Fellowship Hall of the Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship to hear Chuck Durrett speak on the topic, “Cohousing: A Community Approach to Housing Ourselves.” Chuck is the award-winning architect who (together with his wife Katy McCamant) introduced the concept of cohousing to the US. 
rea staffed information tables, and everyone loved the spirited and entertaining main presentation by Chuck Durrett. The event was sponsored by Village Hearth Cohousing, a local project addressing the challenges in senior housing for LGBT individuals. Thanks to Christina and Charles for staffing the Hart’s Mill information table.
Today was a powerful day for Hart’s Mill Ecovillage. At about 1:00 pm, Alana Ennis signed over the title to 112 acres of beautiful fields, waterways, and woodlands which we will now call home. 
By Ginny Richter
On Saturday, December 17, Hart’s Mill members gathered for our final round of Schematic Architectural Design with our architects Suzy Cash, Frank Harmon, and Paul Drake. We met in the Arcadia Common House, and the architects shared their work and progress since our last gathering in November. Here is a copy of the their slide presentation: 
more compact and sits more gently on the land than the original plan approved by Orange County in November of 2015. The new plan moves the village slightly north and east on the site to better follow the contours of the land and reduce the amount of grading and earth moving required. The compact clustering of homes reflected the community’s decision to design half of the homes as duplexes, and about 75% as 2-story homes, which reduced our land footprint and decreased our overall roof square footage to help us with storm-water management. The new plan also has a smaller pedestrian path running between the homes, which we hope will allow us to use less pavement and create a more intimate sense of connection between the houses. Overall, the new plan does a better job of meeting our values of sustainability and affordability. However, we will have to work with the County to ensure that there is adequate access for emergency vehicles in the village, so we may have to revise elements of the new Site Plan going forward.
In this iteration of design, we also saw an updated Common House design with slightly larger Dining Room and Café areas. The architects have also rearranged the location and sizes of the Guest Rooms to create one larger suite with a private bath, and two sleeping nooks off the Library/Meeting Room. This design choice was a response to community requests for different-sized Guest Rooms to accommodate visitors with different needs. In the feedback rounds on Saturday, some members expressed concerns about privacy for guests using the sleeping nooks, so we may modify this element going forward to include an enclosed hallway for greater privacy.
designs: a One Bedroom home, with 1- and 2-story versions (720 and 580 square feet, respectively); a Two Bedroom home, with 1- and 2-story versions (1200 and 1280 square feet, respectively); and a Three Bedroom home (1600 square feet). The Village will also contain two Shared Homes with five bedrooms each, but these units will be designed later. 
The homes use similarly designed “blocks” or sections that make them easier and more affordable to build. They have a 3/12 roof pitch for a shed roof style that creates an intimate streetscape. This low-sloping roof minimizes materials and also helps with affordability in construction, while still offering 95% solar gain for photovoltaic panels. All homes will have screened porches and patios, and most will be clustered in groups of four around shared green space for private and community gardens. Some of the units will have clerestory windows for light and ventilation. One design change from the last workshop is that more homes now have south-facing roofs for solar panels, and the homes that have north-facing roofs will be attached to other homes in duplexes so they can use space on their neighbor’s south-facing roof for solar panels.
