Hart’s Mill Ecovillage

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Hart’s Mill Ecovillage

Located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States

Mission Statement
We are an agrarian intentional community: restorative in our agriculture, sustainable in our designs and practices, collaborative in our social and work life, and celebratory and creative in all that we do.

Community Description
Hart’s Mill Ecovillage is an evolving community planned for a beautiful 112-acre expanse of fields, streams and woods located 10 miles west of Hillsborough in Orange County, NC. Our vision is to provide a tangible example of integrated ecologically, socially and economically sustainable ways of living for residents plus entrepreneurial partners and visitors. We also intend for it to be a model and educational resource for others who wish to forge similar endeavors.

We seek to create a compact village-style rural housing cooperative with 30 homes. Our goal is to establish a high quality of life while minimizing resource use and preserving the majority of the land in agriculture, woodlands, and open space. The initiative is being led by a group of local residents who intend to live at Hart’s Mill. Hart’s Mill has been founded with the intention of modeling integrated, low-impact approaches to residential development and land stewardship. Elements of this goal include:
        adoption of the best site and building design principles and practices for reducing use of energy, water, and other resources
        management of the land for diversified food and timber production, wildlife habitat, recreation, research and education
        opportunities for aging in place within a vibrant multi-generational community
        accessibility to flexible, affordable housing options
        onsite opportunities for farm and home-based employment
        a high degree of self-sufficiency in food, fiber, and energy

The size of our village allows us to know each other deeply, while nourishing social relationships, food production, employment opportunities, and shared facilities to meet many of our needs on-site. Our governance is sociocracy, and we welcome new members who would like to participate in making Hart’s Mill a reality.

We achieved re-zoning in November, 2015, and we plan to break ground in 2017.

Housing
Status: We have land in the permitting or zoning stage
Area: 112 acres
Current Residence Types: Single-family homes, Multi-family homes
Planned number of residences: 30
Land owned by: The entire community membership
Additional Comments:
Rural housing cooperative
Farmworker housing

Membership
Adult Members: 40
Child Members: 6
Percent Women: 0%
Percent Men: 0%
Percent Transgender: 0%
Visitors accepted: Yes
Visitor Process:
Contact us through our website.
Open to new Members: Yes
Membership Process:
3-tiered membership process, described on our web site: http://www.hartsmill.org/get-involved/membership/

Economics
Dues, Fees, or Shared Expenses: Yes
Shared Income: None
Required Labor Contribution: Encouraged or suggested
Open to members with existing debt: Yes

Lifestyle
Shared meals: 1-3 times per month
Dietary Practice: Omnivorous (plants and animals)
Dietary Choice or Restrictions: No – people may eat however they wish.
Special Diets OK: Yes
Alcohol Use: Yes, used occasionally.
Additional Diet Comments:
We’re planning to group housing by dietary and other preferences.

Our story
“…the care of the earth is our most ancient and most worthy and, after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it, and to foster its renewal, is our only legitimate hope.”
― Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

The Story of Hart’s Mill

In 2008, a small group of pioneers started to meet to create a farm-based community in the Triangle area of NC. They came together week after week to dig deep, dream high and lay foundational tenets for living sustainably and in harmony with each other and the land.

Three years later, their work attracted the attention of a visionary landowner who oSite-Plan-900x602ffered to sell 112 acres of fields, waterways, and woodlands to the group when the time was right. Since then, Hart’s Mill Ecovillage and Farm has been attracting new, skilled and dedicated people from diverse backgrounds and stages in life to bring that dream to this piece of ground.

Hart’s Mill is our contribution to reversing ecological degradation across environmental, social, and economic dimensions. We know that we are a part of a much larger network of people who are dedicated to similar values and visions. We’re already sharing so much of what we have learned with all who ask.

Step-by-step, we’re starting to make this integrated village and farm happen. It’s taking great dedication, learning, creativity, hard work, and resources. In the process, we’re coming to love this land and care deeply about one other. A more beautiful world, which our hearts know is possible, is taking shape within and around us.

We’re not sure how this will turn out as some hurdles remain high (such as how we’re going to pay for all of this!). We’re staying the course, respecting our guiding principles and working it all out.  We continue to move forward little by little until one day we will find ourselves living and working at Harts Mill.

If this inspires you, please read on and be in touch. We look forward to meeting all who share this vision and wish to participate in its creation.

The vision
We envision a world in which people live in justice and harmony with each other and the land.

Mission

We are an agrarian intentional community: restorative in our agriculture, sustainable in our designs and practices, collaborative in our social and work life, and celebratory and creative in all that we do.

Aims
To create and maintain a physical infrastructure such as homes, structures, a community house, roads, pathways, utilities, and studios/workspaces
To produce food, fiber, and energy for our community
To provide governance, financial and legal stewardship, membership services, land-use management, community-strengthening and educational offerings
To encourage the establishment of land-based enterprises
To share what we have learned, serve as a model, and foster collaborative exchanges through teaching, learning, and participating in social change.

Source: https://www.ic.org/directory/harts-mill/
            http://www.hartsmill.org/our-story/