If you have interest in a parallel village for your jurisdiction
If a corporation said it was looking for a place to invest a billion dollars in a site that would bring in a quarter billion dollars in new income to your jurisdiction, yet not add a significant burden to the road system, not have an adverse impact on the local residents or culture, and which planned to deal with its own water, sewage, solid waste in a way that was sustainable, would your jurisdiction be interested? And if, so would it be prepared to change how it does business to make it easy for that corporation to move in?
That is what we propose, except the corporation is not a mono-culture, but rather about 4,000 different businesses and jobs that form the local economy of what we call a parallel village -a 10,000 population community worth about $1 billion in rateable value, bringing about $ΒΌ billion a year in new income, yet not requiring an upgraded regional infrastructure because no one will be commuting - everything the residents access on a day-to-day basis:
- their job
- shops
- recreation and leisure
- schooling
- homes
is within a ten-minute walk.
We call it a parallel village because it offers people choice; a new way to live that focuses on creating a much higher quality of life while lowering the cost of living. It is not some utopian ideal or eco-village, but mainstream competition to more suburban sprawl. It is based on solid, proven, market principles and a hard-headed look at the mess we have created by pursuing the wrong goals over the past fifty years. While it appeals to many for its sustainable features, we do not regard these as bragging points - what drives it is quality of life, not the fact that it takes 6,000 cars off the road or manages its own waste smarter. It builds a community around positives, not the absence of negatives.
The village needs about 50 hectares for habitation for about 4,000 homes and 1,000 workplaces, plus in an ideal world, about 150 hectares for the greenbelt that surrounds the village, thus mitigating cross-boundary conflicts and providing the residents with real connection to the outdoors and to Nature. At the village gate, there would be a motorpool, because cars are not permitted within the village walls. People may own, lease or rent a car, they simply park it outside, the same way people visiting shopping malls keep the cars outside the village walls in a covered motorpool and carpark. Next to the motorpool there would be a freight depot and a 15 hectare industrial park. The workers will walk to work, but the supply line to the outside world will use conventional road & rail.
Unlike conventional developments of this magnitude, the parallel village has its own local economy, which means that all development must be accomplished in short order. If a magazine store needs a 7,500 population to trade profitably, they can't move in with a stage 1 portion of 500 homes for 1,200 people. Conventional developers rely on the regional economy to provide jobs, so they cannot sell many homes unless there is a boom that generates housing demand. Parallel villages create their own local economy, and they will sell all 4,000 homes and 1,000 workplaces before they begin because they are drawing on a global market of millions of potential buyers. For this reason, we seek to open the village in 2012... three years from now, which means we need to work fast and work smart.
2012 is an important year for another reason: the impending retirement of the Baby Boom. In 2012 the boomers begin to retire and in the United States, the Comptroller General of the United States, David Walker gave a shocking report in which it is shown that at the end of 2007, the US Federal Debt stood at US$11 trillion, but its unfunded liabilities were an additional $41 trillion. Indeed, at the time the total liability of the US Government was 90% of the net worth of all Americans, and probably now, after the meltdown, the unfunded liability probably exceeds the net worth of all Americans.
All of that liability was for the unfunded Social Security and Medicare... the pensions and medical care for the nations elders - the Baby Boomers. The handwriting on the wall is clear, not just for the USA, but for all countries with an ageing population and advanced medical care. Central government will not have the resources to provide for the Baby Boomers. If we are to provide for them and all future generations of elders, we must find a better way. Parallel Villages proposes a better way in which the local community provides care for its own, keeping them in better health and reducing the cost of care by keeping them in the community when they become infirm.
What we need from you:
- Enthusiastic support - We are looking for a council that "gets it". We are looking for a winning partnership. We wish to begin at the governance level, where the elected officials resolve that their staff will work differently with us. It will be a learning curve for some council planners, as the fundamental relationship between developer and council is shifted. We are a Village Organising company, not a conventional developer. This means we organise the people who will live there into communities called neighbourhood plazas, and then we engage them in the design process. Their primary interest is not pecuniary but effects. How will the effects of the design shape the quality of their lives? Traditionally, the council planners see their role as looking after the effects in the face of the developers pecuniary interest. We turn that relationship upside down. To get this message across, the Council at a governance / political level will need to agree that its staff will engage in a different way.
- Approval in principle - We are not interested in fighting a community. We seek a jurisdiction that welcomes the idea. If there is some community concern, we would want a process that addresses this first, before there is significant investment in land or in the process. However, from an investment perspective, it is important that this approval does not drive land prices to unrealistic levels. If it does have that effect, we will look elsewhere.
- Right Land - It is important that everyone understand what a parallel village is, and what makes the best location for the first ones. During our feasibility tours we found people proposing their 20th century developments re-skinned in parallel village terms. Won't work. It is not a commuter town, not a company town. It also is not an eco-village, a co-housing plan, a gated-leisure community or a retirement village. The right land will be easy to build, but not prime agricultural land. It will be in an area with exceptional qualities, yet roughly within two hours of Auckland Airport. The land need not be proximate to an existing settlement, indeed it is easier if it is at least a few kilometres down the road since often locals oppose change in their back yard, but are OK if it is a bit further away.
- Rapid Approval Process - We believe we can cut the time for plan change, resource consent and subdivision to three months, and secure the certificates of occupancy for the project 12 months after ground breaking. Having had the pleasure of closely observing a major plan change in the Auckland region from first draft to Environment Court rulings, we observed that a vast amount of time in the approval process is down time and circular time. Down time means nothing is actually progressing, and circular time means officials kick papers back for answers and when they are provided the project bogs down until the official can work through the pile on the desk to get back to it. We have developed a process called Dynamic Engagement that focuses on creating a site-specific plan under the observation of the approving officials. Decisions are made in real-time, and issues are negotiated there and then. If they cannot be resolved, the next level of approval agrees to review and make a decision within five working days. This will require a resolution by the council.
- Delegations -While Auckland is going toward amalgamation of local government, a community as tightly defined as a parallel village will have some issued better addressed internally. For example, it intends to use its sewage to make fuel alcohol to sell to its farmers, thus it wishes to manage its own waste disposal systems. It would be helpful if in certain areas of local or regional authority, delegations would be permanently given to the parallel village to manage its own affairs.
- Concessions - In some regions government competes to attract industry. Consider this a billion dollar capital investment that generates about a quarter billion dollars a year without the usual adverse effects of most industries. If concessions are on offer, these will be welcomed, but subject to negotiation to assure the best long-term outcome for the village. For example, lowering the cost of living is a village priority - it's cheaper to save a dollar than earn one.
How to work with us:
Call us. Click the Contact Button and use the phone, email or send us a letter. We are ready to go, and the sooner we find the right land, the sooner we will begin attracting the people who will make the village happen.
