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Community Facilities Appendix 3.1 Land We need ten to fifteen acres of land. The most land-intensive use is septic-tank waste disposal. While we hope to move beyond waste disposal to waste conversion (see Appendix 11), we need to plan for the available technology. When using septic tanks, about a half acre per residence is required. For 100 people, we will want about 20 residences, or a minimum of 10 acres. Additional acres could be used for more residences or for more laboratory space. Undeveloped land in Bastrop county sells for $2,000 to $3,000 per acre. We expect to pay about $30,000 for the land, getting ten to fifteen acres. All of the land is needed at the start of the project. We plan for the land to be bought initially by one person or by a few people and then resold to the settlement corporation at cost with a no-interest loan that will be repaid at the rate of $1,000 per member joining.
The garage illustrates very well how we can incrementally upgrade our community facilities. To start with, we will just cover an area with gravel.
The garages are planned to be near the road. People will walk to their residences from the garages. Wagons will help in carrying small loads such as groceries. For occasional access of vehicles to the residencies (e.g., for moving furniture), we will have space reserved for roads. This space will be lightly covered with gravel, and grass will be allowed to grow on it. Paved paths will be added as traffic patterns become clear from residents' use.
Bastrop County is unusual in that rural water cooperatives are common. Almost all land has water available without drilling an individual well. Costs for running water, electric, and phone lines in are about $1 per foot. Our initial houses will be within a few hundred feet of the utility sources, the later ones at about a thousand feet. (Fifteen-acre plots often have about 550 feet of road frontage and 1,200 feet of depth.) We need to remove both "black water" and "gray water." We plan to use a standard septic tank and drainage field initially, since the requirements for these are clearly spelled out in building code. However, the black water and gray water will be piped separately to the septic tank. This will allow easy access for experimental disposal, assuming we can get permits for such.
We need two corporations: one to own the community property, and one as a venture-capital fund. The two will be separate, since their purposes differ greatly, and the venture-capital fund will serve all of the FMF, not just the settlement.
We plan to build houses in clusters for two reasons. First, this will provide the first level of social structure above the household. Second, it will leave maximum view of green space, avoiding a suburban appearance. The houses in a cluster may be built very close together, perhaps about five feet apart, allowing enough room for light and emergency exit from bedrooms along the "blind" walls. The predominant appearance of the area will then be the vegetation with glimpses of clusters. Each cluster will have a cluster center. This will essentially be another house, but not one with permanent residents. The cluster centers will function initially as meeting spaces. The cluster centers will be added to gradually. A high priority for a cluster center is laundry facilities. We also want to have a library for books and for audio and video recordings at an early stage. In addition, we plan an evening-hours cafe, which can be combined with the library. Gym equipment is a likely early acquisition. With not too many people, we can afford a video theater. The cluster centers will probably be upgraded to include rooms for guests. Guest rooms should also be built into each house. As more clusters are built, each cluster center will specialize in some facility for the settlement.
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