LOOKING FOR A SUSTAINABILITY-CONSCIOUS PLACE TO LIVE?
By Christine M (Mountain Meadows resident since 2005)

Whether you think of it in terms of conservation, sustainability, “Green,” ecology, “eco-friendly,” a low-carbon-footprint lifestyle, or environmental ethics, Mountain Meadows Community is ahead of the curve. At its inception, our community's planners made many environmentally friendly choices. Since then, residents have continued the tradition. And now, when an increasing number of people are striving to live more sustainably, Mountain Meadows provides an ideal home for creating progress – individually, and together as a community.

OUR CONTEXT: THE CITY OF ASHLAND AND STATE OF OREGON...
Of course, Mountain Meadows--a uniquely nonprofit condo development--didn't happen accidentally. Nor was it easy for founder Madeline Hill to get it underway. But perhaps it couldn't have come into existence at all, in most other parts of the country. Ashland is a progressive community with a tradition of public green space within the city, protecting riparian areas, and initiating environmental projects. This isn’t just a university town and a major destination for culture-loving tourists. Ashland is home to many artists, intellectuals and environmentalists, and even boasts several scientific institutions including the Klamath Bird Observatory, a Science Museum, and the world's only Wildlife Forensic Laboratory. It’s a good place for visionaries and activists to live - including the environmentally conscious citizen.

Here I must add a note, in case you fear that a greener lifestyle means giving up the joys of urban life: I’ve found that Ashand offers more than enough of the cultural riches of a certain city I used to love. Year round there is excellent and very often world class food, music, theatre, film, art, and more - way more than I can keep up with. Most of it happens only a few miles and minutes away from your front door. Some of it even happens right here on the Mountain Meadows campus, because neighbors - professional musicians and artists themselves - bring (or create) it here. Who needs to go to the “city?” We make our own.

As for our state, Oregon, it’s well known for green values, particularly in urban centers such as Portland and Eugene. Ashland is a much smaller city than those (residents tend to think of this as a small town) – but did you know that Ashlanders use less energy per capita than any other city in the Northwest? (Ashland Tidings 6/22/09).

And our town is currently working to do even better. Our City Council and Mayor are continuing a push for sustainability. They are addressing ways to decrease our dependence on foods brought in from outside the Valley, for example. The city has a solar power project now, in which citizens invest; plans are under consideration to develop more renewable energy projects on city land; and we are ambitious enough to envision an energy-efficient rail system, to serve and connect the various neighborhoods of the city. A pipe dream? Who knows - if you don’t imagine it, it won’t happen. In the City and in the County too, many new sustainability initiatives are now underway, supported by local groups. In these times, sustainability isn’t just an ethical choice, it’s becoming a civic necessity.

Local businesses often take the lead, too. Just a few examples: restaurants power themselves with solar panels, recycle waste, and use “green” building materials; entrepreneurs make biofuels, design eco-friendly clothing, and build electric-powered vehicles; Ashland's forward-looking high-speed Internet and citywide wireless networks (broadband was developed as a public utility here, providing the highest level of connectivity at the most reasonable price for consumers) attract clean industry and empower home businesses. That’s eco-friendly.

For localvores, a culture of environmental awareness has, over the years, created a context for Mountain Meadows in which locally and sustainably grown foods are on the shelves in local supermarkets, Growers Markets (several days a week through much of the year), and on the Mountain Meadows dining room menu. This is a place where you can easily find locally and ethically produced meat products, cheese, vegetables, fruits and wines in plenty.

Do you need to keep in touch with nature? Community gardens, hiking and biking trails, and we have several large and rather remarkable parks right in town. Besides our own Madeline Hill Park, a block down the street from us, on Bear Creek, is North Mountain Nature Center with its variety of gardens and walking paths; and just two miles away, in the middle of town, is Lithia Park, one of the world’s finest. Close enough for day trips are are skiing and river-running. And there are also quite a few spiritual retreats and camping areas nearby. Southern Oregon is a prime destination, and a great place to live, if you love the outdoors.

These are just a few examples of what's going on locally. Of course it’s not perfect here in Ashland and the Rogue Valley; much work needs to be done we need all hands on deck. If you're committed to living in a low-carbon-footprint culture, Ashland is a great town to be part of and help make it happen.

MOUNTAIN MEADOWS: ECO-FRIENDLY FROM THE BEGINNING...
Founder Madeline Hill's story has been told elsewhere so I won't repeat it all here, except to say that from the beginning, the idea of Mountain Meadows grew from a holistic vision. By providing a setting for people to “age in place,” Madeline didn't just improve the quality of life for over-55's, she also designed a functioning community that reduces government expenditure in unnecessary bureaucracy and housing, frees us from corporate-controlled housing, and places this population group actively within the larger community (the vibrant city of Ashland) where we contribute through working and volunteering.

And when it came to building Mountain Meadows--a development on open, hilly pastureland--the architect designed a project that works with the topology of the area. Rather than leveling the hills, they are used to advantage, both aesthetically (for design interest) and practically (providing multiple frontages for improved access). Every mature tree on the property was saved (this is why some of the roads are so curvy), and a wetland was even created (one ecologist commented that he'd never heard of a developer doing this voluntarily). These innovations are all highly unusual in the culture of developers, and reflect the uncompromising ethic of Mountain Meadows and its builder. Our many awards are well deserved! The Design for Aging Review, by the American Institute of Architects, featured Mountain Meadows architecture in its publication, and many of these challenges and solutions were noted as exceptional.
(See Design for Aging)

INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY, CO-HOUSING, CO-OP, OR CONDO?
There is a growing international movement toward co-housing and intentional communities, in which people can design their neighborhoods according to low-carbon principles such as smaller dwellings and shared resources, maximizing resources free of corporate exploitation, and using direct democracy to make neighborhood decisions. Many people are fed up with the glut of McMansions and gated communities that characterized the recent era of “irrational exuberance”, and are re-inventing community.

At 250 units, Mountain Meadows is too large to function as a co-housing community (the limit for direct democracy of that kind is around 75), so we elect boards to represent us, and we pay a management company to take care of daily business and carry out our decisions under the direction of the boards. Legally, we are a condominium development. However, in practice we do function in many ways like co-housing and intentional communities. This is because of the strong sense of working community at Mountain Meadows. Most people here aren’t just residents, they’re neighbors and community members. If you are interested, you can be as involved as you like in decision-making through community structures, but at the same time, you are not obligated to participate in the endless meetings that often characterize direct democracy.

And this is important: we have a low carbon footprint as an organization, because we are not part of any large or private corporation. As a nonprofit, Mountain Meadows is unique in that respect. All other local “retirement” places are owned by corporations, and, as is the way with corporations, you can assume they are run, at bottom-line, for the benefit of the owners. We are free of that. We are the owners here. It’s interesting that in the current economic crisis, our own financial situation (as a condo association) is very strong, unlike that of many of the for-profit retirement places.

WHAT RESIDENTS ARE DOING...
Throughout Mountain Meadows, interest groups, neighborhood boards, task forces, and resident committees co-create our unique culture as we go along. We use shared spaces, such as the Clubhouse facilities, rather than the “each one own one” model of the Wasteful Old Days. We share information. And we’re always looking at ways to share other resources as well.

Downsizing and sharing resources and amenities: Here, you can practice creative downsizing (although if you still want a big place, those are available too). There was a time in my life for creating architecture in home and landscape, but now I am very happy to be free of house and garden maintenance--and stairs too--yet as a co-owner of the community, I still have a beautiful landscape and all the other common elements (clubhouse, library, wireless, pool, garden, etc.) to use, co-create, and enjoy on equal footing with everyone else, as I choose. And the condo configuration is much more energy-efficient than my old house. That’s treading much more lightly on the earth than I used to do.

Kitchen Creek Community Garden: Our community garden is a good example of a community ethic more typical of a co-housing development than of a condo, as it governs by consensus. About 75 Mountain Meadows residents participate in the garden co-op, with its raised boxes, composting, vegetable and flower beds and most recently, fruit trees. Well water (not city water) is used for irrigation. The National Wildlife Federation has recognized our garden as a Certified Wildlife Habitat, for our environmentally friendly gardening practices, the nesting sites we provide for migratory birds, and the flowers and shrubs we grow that support butterfly populations.

Transportation: Public funding for transportation is an ongoing problem in our County and City, as it is in so many places, but residents are actively seeking alternatives to dependence on individual cars. Some of us have worked (together with students from the University, who have similar transportation concerns) with the City to improve public transportation to under-served neighborhoods, while others are sharing cars and organizing ride-sharing – both through our management company, and through online social networking. And a Task Force is currently looking at other options for decreasing our dependence on our cars. This is a challenge but we’re working on it.

Recycling: Every residence has access to recycling. Two very dedicated residents have completed certification as Master Recyclers and work to help residents recycle everything possible and coordinate our efforts with those of the City. The City and County, also, are continually working to improve the recycling program.

Our Dining Room: Thanks to resident initiatives, our dining service buys locally grown foods (thus cutting down on carbon-wasting food transport from other areas) and organic foods (all our salad greens and other foods, as available, are local organics) whenever possible. And our fine chef, who is also committed to conservation, composts all the kitchen waste in our own community garden!

Landscaping and water use: When they were built, all residences were provided with water-saving plumbing, of course. Currently, our beautiful landscape is fairly water-wise, a combination of xeriscapic plantings with some turf (grassy areas). Drought-tolerant, aromatic herbs sweeten the air as you go about the neighborhood - our own aromatherapy. Many residents are working to reduce water use, both in shared landscaping and (in the case of houses) private yards. We are committed to reducing water use, a major regional concern.

In shared landscape areas, we are making changes in the direction of more sustainable choices in plant materials (such as native trees and shrubs), and reducing both need for, and waste in, irrigation. This will be the trend wherever new landscaping is installed or old landscaping replaced; a sustainable landscape is now our official policy, reflecting the desire of the vast majority of residents. Recently a committee was established through which all residents can influence future decisions about landscaping.

Energy Use: An energy audit has found our buildings exceptionally free of energy-wasting “leaks.” Many of our buildings have skylights, and we use compact fluorescents throughout the public areas (and make that choice available to residents for their homes whenever lights are changed). Some time ago, residents investigated the feasibility of adding solar panels to our roofs, but at that time, could not see a way to make the idea work for us financially; with improvements in cost and technology the question is now being revisited, and wind power is being considered as well. Of course, developments of this sort must be made within the context of maintaining our very solid economic stability as a community - but as new options become available, people here will be demanding them. Residents interested in ideas like these will find kindred spirits here, and support from the community.

STATE OF THE ART ELECTRONIC CONNECTIVITY...
As I mentioned earlier, Ashland offers all residents first-rate broadband service and, soon, citywide wireless. All Mountain Meadows residences are wired for high-speed Internet connection, currently we have free wireless in the Clubhouse, and expect to have the wireless service expanded. Thus residents can continue working at home (we're not all retired!), another way to reduce transportation fuel and costs. A Task Force is currently looking at further improvements in connectivity for the near and longer-term future.

For example, some of us are envisioning a time – once local hospitals and medical facilities have their new telemedicine programs up and running – when residents at Mountain Meadows can connect with their doctors online directly from home or the clubhouse (again, saving on transportation costs). Moving to Mountain Meadows doesn't mean “dropping out” of the world – it means living in the world as it changes. If you share this vision, please join us!

Some residents are computer-savvy, while others are venturing for the first time online. While some have no interest in computers, others are Tweeting with their grandkids, blogging, creating art on their computers, researching genealogy, archiving photos, or running their own businesses online. Our computer users group offers meetings, labs, programs, coaching and workshops. Our Owner’s Association and management company maintain an informational website for residents, and our resident-run computer users group offers social networking by-and-for residents. Some of us are already using this “online clubhouse” for ride-sharing, further education, and other community activities, and we expect this sort of activity to increase as more computer-savvy people move here. All these uses of the Internet can reduce a carbon footprint. Bring on the future - we're ready!

WE ARE ALL AGING, BUT THIS ISN’T AN “OLD FOLKS HOME”...
If you're thinking of moving to Mountain Meadows, remember that we're not an “old folks home” (whatever that is), we're an active community with a real diversity of generations living here. Think about it. We’ve grown up in the Sixties, Fifties, Forties, Thirties, and Twenties. Whatever your age, you’ll find a generational cohort here. But among any of the generations, you’ll find people who share your values; when it comes to what matters, age differences don’t - wisdom does. Each of us has something to bring to the challenges of sustainability.

So if you “think green” you can be assured that you will have plenty of company here, and that's what community is all about. Together, we can create the changes we envision for the future, just as Madeline created this wonderful place for us to do it in. And by our example, we can show other communities how to do it. If this appeals to you, I hope to welcome you as a new neighbor soon.