She was the kind of kid who combed her neighborhood for returnable Coke bottles.

The kind who munched on organic carrots.

Who eventually grew disenchanted with the materialism and isolation of the suburban lifestyle.

So when Janet H. Pelletier learned about Concord Ecovillage a year and a half ago, she was rapt.

Concord Ecovillage is an environmentally friendly cohousing community proposed for southern Chester County or northern New Castle County, Del.

A cohousing community is a kind of intentional community designed, owned and managed by its residents. People live in private homes but periodically share communal meals and tasks such as mowing the grass.

The concept originated in Denmark about 40 years ago and has inspired more than 100 communities across the United States.

With its feet squarely in both the ecology and cohousing camps, Concord Ecovillage promises to be the first of its kind in this area — and maybe the nation.

"Nobody's as green as we intend to be," said Pelletier, the group's Landenberg-based researcher.

Developers Sandy Wiggins and Jackie O'Neil envision a sustainable, solar-powered settlement of up to 40 homes that would meet top national green building standards.

The project should be completed by 2010 or 2011, O'Neil said.

The next step is to find land.

Concord Ecovillage LLC intended to buy a property in West Grove Borough, Chester County, last year but pulled out when expenses proved too high, Pelletier said.

Project advocates are now studying a "very promising" plot of about 14 high, open, residentially zoned acres offered by a landowner in Chester County's London Grove Township, she said.

They expect to meet township planners Wednesday to discuss the site.

Their proposal would likely face zoning challenges because of its higher-than-normal density, said township Manager Steven C. Brown.

Still, he added, "I would love to see it happen here.

"It's not only interesting because it's green or eco-friendly development but it's trying to create that sense of community within that neighborhood. It's an old idea that people have come back to."

Place with a pulse
Once upon a time, every small town resembled a cohousing community.

Everyone knew your name. And your sister's cat's grandmother's name, to paraphrase Mark Twain.

Then the car came along.

Mobility zoomed. Walking practically went extinct. Neighbors became strangers. People started locking their doors.

"I blame the car for a lot of our problems," Pelletier said.

In her suburban neighborhood, she observed, she pushes a button to open her garage door, drives to her job as a business systems analyst for a bank and reverses the routine at night. "I never even have to see my neighbors."

Not that she wants to be forever popping in for coffee.

"I'm not an extrovert," Pelletier said. But she does value one-on-one interaction. She does prefer to live in a place with a pulse.

That's where cohousing comes in.

The Concord Ecovillage idea was conceived of about five years ago, Pelletier said. Among the six or eight core households involved in the planning are a young couple and a 60-year-old woman who lives with her mother.

Cohousing advocates often find themselves explaining what the movement is not.

It isn't a cult or a hippie commune, though Pelletier said she gets that a lot.

It isn't a homeowner's association, in which an administrative hierarchy makes decisions.

It isn't a developer-driven traditional village concept or an exclusive retreat.

"We intend to participate in the community," Pelletier said, "not just have a little fence around ourselves and say 'go away, everybody.' "

Ideally, she said, so as not to further sprawl and congestion, Concord Ecovillage will be close to towns and mass transit.

The site will feature a common house in which neighbors regularly share meals and an architectural design that encourages frequent social contacts.

One- to four-bedroom units will be available.

"We do want to price them competitively," said Pelletier, who will be moving to Concord Ecovillage with her husband, Vic, the group's bookkeeper, and their two young daughters.

"We've been advised not to exceed [the local] market rate by more than about 10 percent," she said. "We don't want to live in these half-million-dollar eco-mansions."

Pelletier described Concord Ecovillage as a multimillion dollar initiative.

The enterprise, partially self-financed, will also be supported by bank loans, and Pelletier said that organizers recently applied for a grant.

Anyone is welcome to move into Concord Ecovillage, but residents will be expected to help run and keep up the settlement.

Management will be by consensus, one of the Quaker principles guiding the community, Pelletier said.

She foresees many a "comfortable arrangement" in which, say, a retired resident watches kids after school in exchange for getting her walks shoveled.

Prospective residents will "self-screen" themselves, according to Pelletier, who said she expects the village to be diverse.

"We're aiming for a community of a hundred [or so] people because that's the number of people you can really know."

Green bona fides
The Concord Ecovillage pedigree is unabashedly green.

The developers are Sandy Wiggins, a former director of the U.S. Green Building Council and chairman of the financial startup e3bank, and Jackie O'Neil, winner of the 2007 Philadelphia Sustainability Award.

O'Neil said she left 30 years of high-level corporate management to do something "more meaningful" — build two net-zero energy homes out of super-insulated panels.

The Perkiomenville resident lives in one of the houses, which she said was designed by Re:Vision Architecture in Manayunk and constructed for market costs.

Slightly smaller than their conventional counterparts, the net-zero homes shave expenses, energy use and space by using sliding doors instead of hinges and pantries instead of costly cabinetry, for example.

O'Neil planted her three-year-old house on a concrete slab that soaks up solar rays and radiates the warmth back slowly — passive solar heating.

Solar panels power the structure, which is also plugged into the grid.

Because the house typically channels more electricity to the grid than it takes, she said, it's a net-zero energy consumer.

O'Neil said her houses were the first LEED gold-certified residences in the country.

Concord Ecovillage homes will follow suit, she added, putting the place on track to become the first platinum-certified community in the United States.

Platinum is the highest level conferred by the U.S. Green Building Council, which evaluates structures through the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system.

According to O'Neil, the "durable, high-quality cottagey" homes planned for the village should be even more efficient than the houses she built because they'll share an electric utility system.

That should pay off big after utility rate caps come off at the end of the year, she said. "The value of the homes will be 40 to 70 percent more" over the span of their mortgage.

O'Neil admitted that being in one of the worst building markets in history is not helping the Concord Ecovillage cause.

But she nevertheless thinks the idea's time has come. "Sandy and I are just shocked that more developers aren't doing this," she said.

Green building is indeed taking off, said Scott Elliott, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Builders Association in Harrisburg — or it will when the slump ends.

If homebuilders have not heard of green building by now, Elliott joked, "they're in a coma."

The cohousing piece of the puzzle remains more esoteric, he added. "It's a little bit of a twist on green building, but it's a perfect fit."

Meanwhile, the search for a home for Concord Ecovillage is gaining ground.

"We have to find the right spot ... that's not going to kill everybody financially," said Margot Mohr Teetor of RE/MAX Town & Country in West Chester.

Teetor is acting as the buyer's agent and seller's agent for the project.

She said she's dedicated to the mission — and the Concord group — because she strongly favors sustainable real estate development.

People are receptive to the idea, Teetor and Pelletier added, but you do have to explain to them what it is.

"They think of someone up on a mountainside with solar panels and a goat," Pelletier said. "We want to demonstrate that living sustainably can be very comfortable and mainstream too."

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Jon Rutter is a staff writer for the Sunday News. His e-mail address is jrutter@lnpnews.com.
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