Piscataquis Village Project is a proposal to create a compact, car-free, 125 acre village on a site totaling 500 acres. The intention is to create a sustainable village that naturally promotes sociability and invites face to face contact and conviviality between neighbors, with bicycle and foot traffic replacing car traffic.
While still in process of acquiring a physical site in the area, Piscataqua Village Project is building interest and currently taking on investors. One investor is J.H. Crawford, author of Carfree Cities and Carfree Design Manual. He says, "This would be the first truly car-free district constructed in the USA since the dawn of the automobile age."
Southern Piscataquis County, Maine is a sparsely populated landscape of small towns, green rolling mountains, woods, meadows, lakes, rivers and waterfalls located about 4 hours South of Quebec City, Canada, and 4 hours North of Boston, MA, and 1 1?2 hours from the coast and islands of Penobscot Bay, ME.
The vision of Piscataquis Village Project is to secure a site, obtain approvals, and to map out a basic physical structure and let it organically, incrementally evolve. Motor vehicles would be parked at the perimeter of the development in a green belt of at least 375 acres, which would also be a zone for gardens, playing fields, outdoor recreation and park-like green space. The actual design of the village is inspired by traditional villages of Europe and early North America, yet envisioned to combine the best practices from history and around the world to create a modern, rural micropolis. Small squares or plazas would be set through the village which would become neighborhood centers and meeting places. It will be located in southern Piscataquis County, Maine, which is a sparsely populated landscape of small towns, green rolling mountains, woods, meadows, lakes, rivers and waterfalls located about 4 hours South of Quebec City, Canada, and 4 hours North of Boston, MA, and 1 1?2 hours from the coast and islands of Penobscot Bay, ME.
"We believe that the most successful places are places where individuals and groups are free to do as they like as long as they don't infringe upon the freedom of their neighbors." says Tracy Gayton, the man who dreamed up this project. He grew up in the area and has spent the last 20 years between Piscataquis County, Maine, and South America. He visualizes this community to be a desirable place for many segments of society including retirees and families.
Tracy plans to accomplish this project the old-fashioned way: through grassroots, individual investors, and a "block investment" option in which people with similar interests join up as a group of 20 or more in order to make a block investment. This provides a "pre-approved zone" for friends, families, and organizations such as co-housing groups, art colonies and eco-villages to create communities within the mosaic of subcultures that the Piscataquis Village Project envisions. Commercial space on the ground floor of residences would be allowed and encouraged. The cost to acquire and build on lots within the community is intended to be extremely affordable.
http://www.piscataquisvillage.org/
https://www.facebook.com/villageproject
Carfree Cities by J.H. Crawford – http://www.carfree.com/