When you picture a housing development no matter where it’s located, you might imagine golf courses, swimming pools and rows of identical houses.
A while back we attended a dinner with Farmer D himself and were introduced to a new type of development. There’s a new model springing up across the country that taps into the local food movement: Farms — complete with livestock, vegetables and fruit trees — are serving as the latest amenity. A good example of this exists right here in Salt Lake City at The Wasatch Commons Cohousing. Wasatch Commons consists of twenty-six clustered townhouses located on a beautiful 4.5 acre site near downtown Salt Lake City. The emphasis is on affordability and preserving the environment, there is also a large common building with a kitchen for sharing events and meals. Most community members own their homes outright; and a few homes are federally assisted rent-to-own units for low-income families. Occasionally one of the homes comes available on the market and we are among the first to know so if you’re interested just drop us a line. There’s rumor they will be expanding with some senior homeowner options and they added a half acre garden to their food production capabilities last fall. Growing possibilities!
Development-supported agriculture (DSA) is becoming a common term used to describe this model, a more intimate version of community-supported agriculture — a farm-share program commonly known as CSA. In planning a new neighborhood, a developer includes some form of food production — a farm, community garden, orchard, livestock operation, edible park — that is meant to draw in new buyers, increase values and stitch neighbors together.
You can read an entire NPR article on this topic here.