Regen Civics Alliance Pilot Projects

Regen Civics Alliance Place-Based Pilot Projects for 2022. The Regen Civics Alliance hosts a program to pilot regenerative development projects, stewarded by a decentralized group of regenerative organizations. The first pilot cohort of 13 place-based projects were selected on May 24, 2022, commencing a year-long program designed to model regenerative development, and future pilot project cohorts. See candidates for 2023 here.

Latin America

Abundancia & Ubuntu

• Representative Kelly Krezek - CEO of New Earth Development, Abundancia Founder, Project Manager, Development & Revenue Planning, Financial Modeling, and Regenerative Systems
• Location 15 minutes north of San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua
• 
How is the place-based/regenerative development project(s) you're representing regenerative? This may be a helpful resource: https://www.regenlive.org/what-is-regenerative:
  • We are creating a regenerative community development project that serves as a model for how all life can thrive in harmony with nature and each other while regenerating the environment. The living systems we develop will create ever greater vitality, abundance, and prosperity for all life. We are using a whole systems approach such as in permaculture where we see how what we are doing betters the environmental around us, capturing water from rain, when we build with the surrounding dirt it will create ponds for more life to flourish in, making sure the water we use goes back out to the land it was meant to go to through plant filtration systems, while using biodegradable soaps and hygiene products that are good for the natural environment. We will utilize renewable energy and be self-sufficient in water, energy, and food. The waste systems are designed to create energy and nutrient dense soil for growing nutritious food. It will have zero waste stores and people will be educated on how to practice a zero waste lifestyle by having reusable containers and buying from organic, local, zero waste places to get everything they need. Any plastic that is used will be turned into fuel and energy through pyrolysis machines We will plant over 100,000 trees and plants including food forests, vegetable gardens, native plants, flowers, and more with water retentive landscape order to regenerate the land, bring back wildlife, and preserving over 95% of the property to naturally flourish with both native plants as well as edible garden and food forests for there to be abundance of food for the entire community and the surrounding areas. Permaculture experts, biologists, forest management, and other experts in biological corridor preservation will help us ensure we create places where biodiversity can flourish and wildlife can make homes on the property. It will also be regenerative in its social and economic systems. It will have co-governance methods for inclusive decision making and decentralized economic structures. It will also have many avenues of personal development within the sacred temple complex, the healing center, retreat center, and festival ground for people to experience an expansion of consciousness and higher vibrational state of living. The regenerative development workshops and education including natural building and permaculture will help people learn how they can also live this lifestyle and gain the skills to be able to do it in their personal and professional life. The education and research centers provide a place for people to pursue their passions and purpose. The co-working and maker space areas give people a place to come together to solve world problems through business ventures and a place to create beautiful inspirational art of all types including paintings, reclaimed woodworking, metalwork, jewelry, pottery, and more with all sustainable materials. One of the most important factors is that we will be guided by the Living Building Challenge Certification standards in everything we do, and sometimes beyond their standards where possible. This is the highest level certification for regenerative and sustainable development that incorporates ecology of place, beauty, water, energy, waste, design, materials use, and much more into their certification. I am currently working towards obtaining my living future accreditation to be able to help us stay on track with this goal.
• What values, goals, and focus areas are guiding your place-based regenerative project?
  • Our Values:
    • Regeneration Our aim is to live in harmony with nature, build with permaculture principles in harmony with natural ecosystems. Resilient sustainable buildings and regenerative closed loop systems create zero pollution, zero waste, net positive renewable energy, carbon sequestration, and abundant organic food. We make sure zero trees are cut down, we plant many trees to reduce CO2 and provide food for as many people as we can.  We plan to use only sustainable & ethical products and biodegradable cleaning and hygiene products within the community. Our goal is complete self sufficiency in food, water, waste, and energy. Earth is not harmed in the creation of this community, only positive impact is made.
    • Creative Expression & Full Potential It’s important to create a space where people can fully express their creativity and have all the tools they need to do so.  Education is based on helping people pursue their unique passions and purposes. Once a resident's home is paid off, they can live for free with all access to utilities and amenities. This means they don’t have to rely as much on making money to meet their needs and they can focus on creation and innovation.
    • Well-being         Human wellbeing is put first. The definition of human well-being is: People's ability to live a life they value and can comprise cultural heritage, health, access to land and natural resources, and income-generating opportunities. Decisions are made in alignment with values for what’s best for humanity and the planet. We create spaces for community connection and guides for healthy conflict resolution. Having regular check ups by nutritionists and doctors, regular exercise, eating healthy, raising our frequency, and doing meditation helps our community have great physical and mental health and prevents disease. We also use advanced technology and healing methods to help assist in the healing processes.
    • Co-Creation & Collaboration We enjoy making the world a better place, together. People have spaces to co-work and create businesses that have a positive impact.  In our governance methodology, we use sociocracy, where everyone is included and all voices matter and are heard.
    • Connection & Loving Kindness The golden rule is to treat one another as you would like to be treated. Social gatherings, authentic relating, and entertainment play a role in connecting with neighbors and the local community so close relationships can be created. We will also have process for conflicts to be resolved through non-violent communication methods and have mediators help keep harmony within the community.
    • 7 Generations of Impact If everyone built the way we built, all major world problems could be eradicated. We desire to create the model for all to use to create spaces with affordable homes, abundant food, holistic health, and a regenerative environment to eliminate systemic issues including homelessness, hunger, disease, pollution, and more. We also are making sure the community will be there to be passed down for generations without needing much maintenance or repairs. Our buildings will last at least 500 or more years and virtually impervious to natural disasters, and be completely built with non toxic, natural, healthy materials.
    • Reaching Self-Actualization We are Cultivating Full Potential Through Meeting Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Abundancia is designed to meet all human needs to allow the liberation of human potential and self-actualization. Physiological Needs met through: Food, energy, water, waste management are free Safety Needs met through: Gated security protection and conflict resolution strategies Belongingness & Love Needs met through:Community events, authentic relations and recreation Esteem & Accomplishment Needs met through:Involvement in community decisions, environmental regeneration, and global initiatives Self- Actualization needs met through: Creative expression in art, inventorship, entrepreneurship, education, music, and heath and wellness
  • Our Goals:
    • Preserve 95% or more of the land, increase biodiversity, and grow abundant food. We want to show that even with preserving this much nature, and only building on cleared areas that we can create a profitable endeavor for developers.
    • Showcase that we can provide homes for 300-1000 people (depending on the land) and liberate them of all basic survival needs such as food, water, electricity, and even give free access to all amenities that allow them to thrive. We’ve already proven this model is possible in our financial models.
    • Establish a model for regenerative community development and processes for others to duplicate around the world. We have already started creating the course on the 10 steps to creating a regenerative community including visioning, social and governance, economics, development and financial planning, legal, marketing, fundraising, detailed financial modeling, regenerative building, and community operations. So we plan to track every step of what we do and film the process to create the regenerative development course, a documentary, tv series, and educational content to share with others.
    • Our company, New Earth Development will partner with other projects to help with the development process, and scale large enough to eventually be able to create cities that align with our values or regeneration, well being, and supporting people to reach their full potential.
    • We will also help serve developing countries to teach them how they can build their own homes from local resources and grow food in their areas, then they can be able to create their own communities based on their own needs and desires without us doing it for them.
• Is the property/land associated with this project currently owned privately, publicly or cooperatively?
  • The land for this project is currently owned by our partner, Arnold Poncon's companies including Argoforestal, Sustainable Habitat and Ecosystems, and Morgan's Rock.
• What is the long-term ownership intention of this property/land: private, public, cooperative, fractional?
  • Our long-term ownership intention is to sell lots to homebuyers for them to own outright, while keeping the community spaces co-owned collectively by the residents.  Public spaces where commerce with the public occurs will remain in the stewardship of the development team, to ensure clear and organized management, while proceeds of these public spaces are to be allocated to pay for all operating expenses of the community, such as HOA dues, road maintenance, water, utilities, etc.   We currently believe this management structure to be the most effective to reach our goal of ensuring all residents can have basic needs provided for through public space lease payments, but we are keen to join the Regen Civics Incubator to learn the benefits of incorporating a decentralized governance approach to better manifest our vision and accomplish our goals with as much unity as possible.
• What is your legal structure? What type of or combination of legal entities will your project use to protect the land and the members?
  • Currently, we have a Delaware LLC designated to be a holding company for incoming investment dollars. Since we were first planning to build in Costa Rica, that Delaware LLC owns 100% of the shares of a Costa Rican Sociedad Responsabilidad Limitada (SRL), which is similar to a Costa Rican version of an LLC. However, since we realized the amazing nature and opporunity in Nicaragua, we can create an LLC in Nicaragua.  That structure is intended to purchase and hold the land of about 200 acres called Abundancia Community within the larger 5000 acres of Ubuntu. We are also looking into setting up a community land trust to create a common heritage of the land for all who live there.  We have been advised by our lawyers to open another LLC for the operation of business income and expenses, designed to create multiple layers of protection in case there’s some sort of legal action taken from an employee or business associate, then the land is protected in its own SRL.  However, we are curious how incorporating our dear brother Will Blakey’s Universe Ministry model will adjust this legal structure plan. We are also looking into creating a trust to hold the entities.
• How many acres/hectares is this project?
  • We spent the land 8 months working on the financials, deck and business plan to execute this entire plan on the 1400 acres described in this deck: https://docsend.com/view/5gyifq7vtsedtmzm. Since we now have decided to partner with Ubuntu, we are customizing the plan to work within their project, and including all the same amentites and public spaces we had in our deck with the same concept to create financial freedom for the residents to be liberate of all survivals needs with free food, water, energy, internet, and community amenities and with the same capability to demonstrate the power of regenerative development to reforest and return biodiversity to an area.
• How many acres/hectares is native/untouched/wilderness?
  • Of the 5000 acres, about 50% or more is untouched wilderness.
• How many acres/hectares will remain native/untouched/wilderness?
  • We plan to only build in 5%-10% of the land, keeping all trees possible and reforest previously cleared areas. in our plan including all 270 homes and 24 amenities only about 19 acres of that is actual built structures and roads, and the rest being natural jungle regrowth and edible forests.
• How many acres/hectares has been restored? The agroforestry areas that were previously cut are being currently restored which is at least 200 acres or more.
• What is the status of your project’s governance structure, or DAO (decentralized autonomous organization)? What support do you need to develop it further?
  • We don’t yet have a DAO or DHO set up but we would very much like to create one immediately to help all of our project’s team members understand the equity or token payment they’re receiving for their involvement in the planning and execution of our development project.  We also of course would love a DAO or DHO for the village of residents that move into the land and people who want to own businesses or have roles within with community.  We would love support in creating both of these, or seeing the elegant way we can create one DAO or DHO  that accomplishes both.
• How are you integrating with the local community in your area?
  • We will learn from the local culture and indigenous wisdom.  Our plan is to ask locals and indigenous what they desire, what would serve them, and how we can live together in harmony, to weave their feedback into the project. We will also have indigenous come to the land to listen to the land and see what it wants and have a blessing ceremony for the land.
  • We will provide affordable or free homes available for locals and indigenous to live and share wisdom. We will give locals access to healthy food and donate fruits & veggies that we grow for free. Local artists & wood workers will have space to make art & goods to sell, boosting local economy. There will be non-profit education on regenerative building with local sustainable materials & permaculture so they can gain skills and work in the area professionally to make income for them and their families, or they can build their own home for low cost. We also plan to supply above average local wages for maintenance, cleaning, construction, landscape, and more.
• How many people does your project need to maintain or run the property, and are there limits to growth or how many people can live on the land? How many people are currently involved in your project?
  • Currently there are many active participants in the project.  These positions are: CEO, Founder of Abundancia - Kelly Krezek CEO, Founder of Ubuntu - Arnold Poncon (Land Owner & Experienced Nicaragua Developer) Arnolds's Team comes with 4 in house architects, engineers, a project manager, many site operators and management, contractors, event coordinators, relationships in local municipality, property owners, banks, and investors. Chief Business Development Officer, CMO, & Co-Founder of Abundancia - Joe McVeen Angel Investor - Sri Mayi Retreat Center Partner - Shawn Wells Television Distribution Partner - Jonathan Barbato Director of Marketing - Gloria Merrick Governance Advisor - Will Blakey Development Advisor - Norman Brooks
  • We also have partnership conversations brewing with: Gensler, which is the world’s largest architecture firm. They also focus on regenerative and sustainable projects and giveback to social justice programs. Permaculture experts who know our intended microclimates extremely well and deeply support our project such as Porvenir Permaculture and Stephen Brooks. A director of sales Structural engineers Topographical engineers The creator of the Burning Man 2020 metaverse who is excited to create a metaverse for our project before it’s built An expert social media distribution agency that can massively broadcast Abundancia to the world on social media when we are ready to do so A dozen or more serious and interested lot purchasers (even though we’ve tried to keep our project on extreme down low, not posting on social media, etc) … Plus a network of incredible world changing entrepreneurs to lean on for advice or collaboration any time we desire
  • The number of people needed to maintain the property and the number of people that can live on the land depends on the size and building parameters of the land.  For the 1400 acres we’ve already modeled in the deck above, we anticipated 210 - 530 families to be able to buy lots and build homes and move in. We have a whole financial pro forma spreadsheet itemizing and detailing out the staff we’d need for the 1400 acres, and the total anticipated number of positions to hire is around 25-30 steady staff after development is completed, which of course fluctuates based on the development timeline as well as seasonal and economic variables. We will be editing this proforma to be accrurate to the land with the Ubuntu project.
• Have you addressed zoning, building codes, and taxes? If so, how are they being addressed and/or how are they impacting your plans?
  • Yes, abundantly so.  We have some of the best structural engineers, lawyers and architects recommended to us who have worked on many regenerative projects in the past, and they have all guided us towards building materials, processes, expectations, cost expectations and many more that are specific to our project.  It has been months of due diligence and team building to get to this point to be ready to execute such a sizable project.  We are happy to share our financial pro forma if accepted into the incubator, as it carries some sensitive information.
• Have you addressed zoning, building codes, and taxes? If so, how are they being addressed and/or how are they impacting your plans?
  • Property taxes in Nicaragua are around 1% annually, based on the declared property value.  Our mission is to liberate all residents from survival needs, so our aim is to have the public space lease payments and the rental income from the Airbnb stays cover all operating expenses of the community, including property taxes as well as HOA dues, road maintenance, weekly food delivery from the permaculture garden, sewage, water and recycling.  It’s an unprecedented amenities package that we believe will allow residents to be set free from survival needs, and help usher in a new era of consciousness by using all of that freed up time and energy to follow passions and co-create global solutions.  We are also very keen to work with Hypha and Seeds to see how an extra layer of Regenerative Finance can help achieve these goals of offsetting community operating expenses.
• What kind of funding are you looking for and what are you looking to do with it?
  • We are looking for $4M- $6M in funding for land acquisition, master planning, architectures, permitting, infrastructure, model homes, marketing and creating a virtual metaverse world of the community, and operations. We are giving equity in an equity waterfall based on profit share. Initial sales will be used to fund development efforts up to the approved budget, plus a 10% reserve. Then proceeds will be distributed 100% to investors (Limited Partners) until the principal has been repaid. Profits will then be distributed 70% to Limited Partners, 30% to General Partners until LP’s reach a 120% ROI. All remaining profits are then distributed 40% to LP’s and 40% to GP’s, with 20% going to a non-profit donation fund to benefit the surrounding area. With our current financial models, we estimate a 136% ROI over 4 years with a 34% ROI per year.
• What level of experience do you have budgeting for and actualizing a place-based/regenerative development? Do you need support designing plans and / or itemizing costs?
  • We are very experienced in regenerative development. I have a background in finance and real estate and have worked on over 10 sustainable development projects, and have visited over 55 ecovillages. We have a huge database of experts for building all natural structures, regenerative systems, permaculture, biophilic passive architectural designers, engineers, and more. Our expertise is project management, development and financial planning, master planning, design, referring sustainable experts and providers, and systemizing processes.  We are currently hired on multiple regenerative development projects in Costa Rica to help them put together their financial pro forma, investor relations strategy, and marketing strategy. We would just like support in the cryptocurrency creation for the community.
• What do you think RCA should be looking for when selecting the 12 place-based/regenerative development projects in this first cohort of applicants?
  • Criteria for the 12 projects should include standards similar to the living building challenge in regenerative infrastructure and design. Their goals should be aligned with the ultimate vision or creating a better world for all. They should also be financially feasible through financial modeling to make sure the operations can continue over time without people struggling to get through. It’s also important that they are not destroying nature, but actually regenerating it.
• How do you personally want to support the 12+ projects in the alliance's first cohort and at what capacity and commitment level?
  • I’m very happy to help with these projects with our development services. Find more info at www.newearthdevelopment.org. Right now, we are working on scaling our services offering to more communities by bringing onboard professionals in sustainability consulting, project management, financials, and development planning who we are training.  All of our team aligns with our values and can help in many different regions of the world. We are happy to refer our providers in regenerative building and regenerative systems including rammed earth, hempcrete building, permaculture design, architects of all kinds, water systems experts, solar, bioharmonic materials, waste to energy systems, and much more. We are also open to sharing our financial model to all the public spaces to pay for the operating costs of the community so more people can create sustainable financial operations and set their residents free.     

                   

Finca Sagrada

• Representative: Walter Moora, Jon Love
• Location: Vilcabamba, Loja Province, Ecuador
• How is the place-based/regenerative development project(s) you're representing regenerative? This may be a helpful resource: Biodynamic farming, indigenous practices AND reforestation of degraded mountainside,
• What values, goals, and focus areas are guiding your place-based regenerative project? Finca Sagrada (Sacred Land Farm) is on sacred land as designated by the Kogi indigenous shamans from Colombia, in collaboration with the Palta people, who are the traditional custodians of this land. We respect and honor Mother Earth.
  Our mission statement: Finca Sagrada exemplifies a farm-based, multicultural learning center where people can reconnect to self, community and nature through heartfelt thinking. “A healthy social life is found only when, within the mirror of each soul, the whole community finds its reflection, and when, within the whole community, the virtue of each one is living”.  (Quote from Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy)
  The KINS Operating Principles, developed by Susan Davis Moora are the foundation of our community
  • Our strategy is generosity, and our intention is wonder.
  • A deal is a good deal when it is good for all concerned, especially Earth.
  • Everyone does what we love to do and do well, and little else.
  • We sit at the table of unknowing and invite the Universe to co-create with us for the highest good for all concerned.
• Is the property/land associated with this project currently owned privately, publicly or cooperatively? Currently Privately Owned by Susan and Walter Moora
• What is the long-term ownership intention of this property/land: private, public, cooperative, fractional? The land will be held in a cooperatively owned LLC, with the possibility of fractional ownership.
• What is your legal structure? What type of or combination of legal entities will your project use to protect the land and the members? The LLC will be the owner of record in Ecuadorian law.  The operations of the Sacred Site, the Farm, the Retreat and Education Center and Entrepreneurial Enterprises will be managed by the “Finca Sagrada Association.” Both entities are already incorporated in Ecuador. We are forming an Advisory Council to help guide our process and to access resources needed to make our vision a reality.
• How many acres/hectares is this project? Our 277 Hectares (684 Acres) includes approximately 9 hectares of fertile farmland and a deforested mountainside
• How many acres/hectares is native/untouched/wilderness? None is untouched completely, but the mountain, which is about 270 hectares, is in the process of reforestation.  Our dream is that it becomes completely regenerated. We have already raised $38,000 for towards this and work is currently underway. There are ancient sacred sites that have been reactivated through our ceremonies with indigenous people.
• How many acres/hectares will remain native/untouched/wilderness? Our dream is to reforest the mountain, returning it to native condition as much as possible, and to leave approximately 1 hectare of land untouched in the flat river valley so the spirit of the land can thrive.
• How many acres/hectares has been restored? 5-6 hectares has been organically farmed since 2007, and about 2 hectares of new trees have been planted on the mountainside (about 7000 trees)
• What is the status of your project’s governance structure, or DAO (decentralized autonomous organization)? What support do you need to develop it further? The shares in the LLC will come with voting rights and the Association will use consensus-based governance. As the community grows, we would like to tokenize the governance voice, and possibly ownership. This is one of the areas where we do need advice and support in knowing what’s possible and then implementing it.
• How are you integrating with the local community in your area? Finca Sagrada has been a catalyst for local organizing of
  • Community Gardens
  • An organic farmers market,
  • A grassroots movement to create the Upper Catamayo Sovereign Watershed
  • An eventual deployment of Seeds as the local, regenerative currency
  • A project to train and support local entrepreneurs in developing their own regenerative enterprises, supported by the Global Transformation Core. We have received five SEEDS grants totaling over 3 million seeds to support these projects. The partner members of the Association who actually work the land direct the volunteers and include local and indigenous farmers. We work directly with indigenous and local communities in strengthening indigenous roots, hosting ceremonies on the Finca Sagrada land, and attending ceremonies in the area.
• How many people does your project need to maintain or run the property, and are there limits to growth or how many people can live on the land? How many people are currently involved in your project? Currently there are usually at least 9 people engaged in work on the property, but more right now as the reforestation is going on. We have had as many as 20 people working on the land. We think the limit we want to hold to is about 35 - 40 people, unless we are able to expand by acquiring even more adjacent land. We also have had an informal group of advisors that we are in the process of formalizing into an Advisory Council of 10 or so very established people around the world.
• Have you addressed zoning, building codes, and taxes? Yes. We have been farming and building and living on the land for 15 years, and have learned how to work with the local authorities, even as regulations change.
• What kind of funding are you looking for and what are you looking to do with it? We're looking for capital to compensate the current owners for putting their land and assets into the collaborative project. And for building guest accommodations, a Retreat Center, improved volunteer and worker accommodations. We are also looking for working capital to compensate a project development leader and a biodynamic farmer to take over from the current farmer as he moves toward retirement.
• What level of experience do you have budgeting for and actualizing a place-based/regenerative development? Do you need support designing plans and / or itemizing costs? We are blessed with a wealth of experience; in farming, in social and community organizing, in organizational development and transformation. What we are looking for is support in creating structures that will allow the next generations to take over as we take our roles as elders in the community.
• What do you think RCA should be looking for when selecting the 12 place-based/regenerative development projects in this first cohort of applicants? History of being effective, readiness to move forward, project that represent a variety of types, scales and experience so Regen Civics can maximize its learning and readiness to support a new round of projects.
• How do you personally want to support the 12+ projects in the alliance's first cohort and at what capacity and commitment level? Mentoring and advice on farming practices, organizing and facilitation. Access to our extended community of advisors.
• Conclusion Finca Sagrada has a stellar fourteen year record. Not only have we developed the property, but we have created strong ties to both indigenous and the local communities. The owners, Susan and Walter, are ready to move Finca Sagrada into a more formalized community. Having the help and expertise of RCA will facilitate this evolution of Finca Sagrada into a model project that can be an example to other projects around the world.

La Tierra

• Representative: Nicolas Alcala (co-founder)
• Location: Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica
• 
How is the place-based/regenerative development project(s) you're representing regenerative? "As a partner of the Buckminster Fuller Institute, la tierra aims to help “Make the world work, for 100% of humanity [...] without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.” la tierra wants to be an example of regenerative living, giving, growing, finance and thinking. The bio-inspired buildings will be made with natural materials; the agriculture will be fully organic; the culture, governance, and economy will disallow the needless over-exploitation of resources and people and will strive to tend to the needs of all. la tierra will aim to be self-sufficient and/or interdependent in energy, food, water, etc.. We will have the water for the land very well planned to ensure a highly productive ecosystem. We will endeavour to capture every drop that falls on the land, and use/reuse it wisely. Wastes from one system will be inputs for another (eg: food scraps from restaurants/cafés will be composted, sewage will be biologically treated and will become nutrition for our agricultural zones.) Re/upcycling will be the built-in norm. More info on la tierra by-laws
• What values, goals, and focus areas are guiding your place-based regenerative project? la tierra recognises that we are living through a time of change. As one paradigm makes way for another, la tierra will play its part in transitioning human culture to the new model of wholism, cooperation, and regeneration. We will implement known regenerative principles and technologies, as well as help cultivate those who will generate and usher in new ideas and ways to enrich the whole. la tierra will be designed to produce humans expressing their potential, deserving of such a beautiful home planet. We value cultural evolution; ecological health; wholistic, non-linear, systems and 7 generation thinking; community; knowledge; sharing; collaboration; art; mysticism; beauty, nature, connection, equity, freedom, non-violence, kindness, design, stewardship, and much, much more!
• Is the property/land associated with this project currently owned privately, publicly or cooperatively? At this moment, it is owned privately but that is changing.
• What is the long-term ownership intention of this property/land: private, public, cooperative, fractional? We are looking at a condominium style leasehold ownership (read: stewardship) model.  There will be a DAO that will signal voting and manage some decisions, but at the beginning a great part of the decision-making will be made by the board. The intention is for the land to be forever owned by the committee, and individual plots will be sold as renewable long-term leases.
• What is your legal structure? What type of or combination of legal entities will your project use to protect the land and the members? Land will be owned by Costa Rican equivalent of a Community Land Trust and operated by a board consisting of inhabitants, founders, investors, local and indigenous representatives, council of experts and advisors, local government. The council uses an SPV to hold all the assets, executes the bylaws, protecting the land from speculation. The board overseas the Operating Company which is in charge of managing all the businesses that operate within the land, and the Developing Company which is in charge of all development within la tierra.
• How many acres/hectares is this project? 175 Ha
• How many acres/hectares is native/untouched/wilderness? Approx 65 Ha
• How many acres/hectares will remain native/untouched/wilderness? at least 65 Ha. Tree clearing will be kept to an absolute minimum. All larger trees will be kept., only smaller younger trees may be cleared, if necessary.
• How many acres/hectares has been restored? most of the land is forested. Cutting trees and clearing land will be avoided, as much as possible.
• What is the status of your project’s governance structure, or DAO (decentralized autonomous organization)? What support do you need to develop it further? Idea stage. A DAO will manage some of the decisions going forward. We would appreciate input on this vital subject, since it is important to get right.
• How are you integrating with the local community in your area? Integration is vital for this project. Our local architects have a team member who is an expert in community integration, we will be following his counsel. Furthermore, we will take lessons from other similar local projects, established and in the process of setting up. We intend to gift a parcel of land to a local indigenous council, so it may also influence la tierra's culture.
• How many people does your project need to maintain or run the property, and are there limits to growth or how many people can live on the land? How many people are currently involved in your project? The village will be a large complex of other villages and multiple businesses including a farm, hotel, restaurants/cafes, hamam, among others. It's hard to know how many staff will be required at this stage, more than 50. the project may eventually house 1000 people, once/if the water capacity is sufficient. Currently, we have a team of approx. 5 core, 2 permaculture designers, 3+ architects, 1 civil engineer, 1 primary investor, several assisstants, and many advisors.
• Have you addressed zoning, building codes, and taxes? Preliminary zoning has been completed. The Civil Engineers are creating detailed topographical maps using LiDAR, allowing them, our architects and landscape designers to start zoning. Our civil engineers and lawyers are helping us address the building codes and taxes.
• What kind of funding are you looking for and what are you looking to do with it? We are looking to fundraise several million dollars to develop the village, the think tank, the art, etc. We are still doing the numbers, but it'll be anywhere from $50M to $100M. Funding will come in different shapes and forms. Of course, all of this will be phased and there will be clearly defined tranches of funding at different stages and for different parts of the village. We acknowledge the size and scope of what we are trying to build and, precisely because we are approaching it from a more conventional real estate development angle, we believe this project has great chances of success. We have a unique property (7 minutes from an airport, direct access from a paved road, private beach, two rivers, a lagoon and waterfall, extensive flat cleared lands…) in one of the most sought-after countries to buy property. The fact that we are creating a mixed model of traditional funding / building and then adding all the regenerative innovations on top gives us the confidence that we will see this project succeed, avoiding unnecessary risks while we pioneer and experiment with new forms of governance, construction, ideation, collaboration, and art.
• What level of experience do you have budgeting for and actualizing a place-based/regenerative development? Do you need support designing plans and / or itemizing costs? So far, we have hired any expertise lacking in the core team. Our Real Estate Consultant/Project Manager has 15 years experience in the field and has overseen the development of assets worth over $3B. Our senior financial advisor is a seasoned CFO with decades of experience as well as a deep understanding of community development, design, governance, and economics and has consulted many high-level village builders including the founding members of Auroville, Findhorn, and Sri Lanka’s Sarvodaya movement, as well as many of the leading advocates of today’s regenerative culture. We’re honoured to be supported by Burning Man Fly Ranch and many other ecovillages and communities. We are researching some of the most advanced and interesting building systems and are seeking experts to help us with construction. Help with reviewing financials would be appreciated.
• What do you think RCA should be looking for when selecting the 12 place-based/regenerative development projects in this first cohort of applicants? authenticity of intention, potential to carry the project to completion, existing funding avenues, transparency, a sense of humour, shared values, a project with heart and enormous potential which needs the help.
• How do you personally want to support the 12+ projects in the alliance's first cohort and at what capacity and commitment level? We have a very open-source mindset and will happily share what we can. la tierra's founders also started re:build, an organisation to share and amplify the village building movement, in which we would love to include members of the cohort. We occasionally host Masterminds, getting village builders together to share resources. We also founded the Design Science Studio as a way to bring in system thinkers and art into the equation. We made a series of design sprints on how to build a regenerative village, that we will share openly. We are also creating a blueprint for many others to copy and learn from. Furthermore, a central part of la tierra will be Agora, which will serve as a think-tank and a headquarters of the regenerative movement. A place where we can continuously explore best practices to increase our ecological and social harmony.

Starseed Village

https://odysee.com/@theuniverse:d/Starseed-Village-5-Minute-Pitch-Draft

• Representative William Blakey, Co-founder
• Location Guatemala
• 
How is the place-based/regenerative development project(s) you're representing regenerative? This may be a helpful resource: https://www.regenlive.org/what-is-regenerative: Growing organic food. Agroforestry. Permaculture focused. Educational centres. Pilot for free energy machines. Currently hydropower. Effective waste management systems. Preservation. Life generating. Natural construction. DAO universe
• What values, goals, and focus areas are guiding your place-based regenerative project? Values: Radical responsibility, Decentralised, Heart based, Spiritual, Conscious, Regenerative, Permaculture, Transparency, Community. Goals: 100% self-sufficient energy, food and water supplies, with surplus for local neighbours and surrounding areas, 100% circular Waste management system - eco bricks, composte, recycle etc., Self-actualisation in community, Music studio and outside amphitheatre, Fungi finesse, Partnerships, Education centre, Web 3.0 dev site, Media production facility, Hiking trails, Horse riding, Animal husbandry, Athletic field / sports centre, Spa and healing zone, Treehouse’s, Bamboo eco-village, Harmony with nature
• Is the property/land associated with this project currently owned privately, publicly or cooperatively? Cooperatively owned
• What is the long-term ownership intention of this property/land: private, public, cooperative, fractional? 100% community ownership. Deed in the name of the ministry. Ownership / equity and voice / access rights represented with tokens in the DHO.
• What is your legal structure? What type of or combination of legal entities will your project use to protect the land and the members?
• How many acres/hectares is this project? 156
• How many acres/hectares is native/untouched/wilderness? Majority
• How many acres/hectares will remain native/untouched/wilderness? To be determined.
• How many acres/hectares has been restored? it doesn’t need restoration, but it will benefit from permaculture principles and polycropping.
• What is the status of your project’s governance structure, or DAO (decentralized autonomous organization)? What support do you need to develop it further? Intended to use DHO. In this cohort to complete the onboarding process, fully integrate, and to guide other communities.
• How are you integrating with the local community in your area? Local cooperatives. Community dinners. Shared events. Co-working.
• How many people does your project need to maintain or run the property, and are there limits to growth or how many people can live on the land? How many people are currently involved in your project? 3-6 people to maintain. 25+ already living and actively participating. Can expand to hundreds+
• Have you addressed zoning, building codes, and taxes? If so, how are they being addressed and/or how are they impacting your plans? Ministry is tax exempt, although we still pay local taxes by choice. We just 3D mapped the whole land and will formally begin zoning. We have rough ideas already. Guatemala does not have building restrictions, and the spiritual ministry is seperate from state, so can technically create its own permits and licenses.
• Have you addressed zoning, building codes, and taxes? If so, how are they being addressed and/or how are they impacting your plans? Tax exempt
• What kind of funding are you looking for and what are you looking to do with it? TBD. Estimate $3mil+
• What level of experience do you have budgeting for and actualizing a place-based/regenerative development? Do you need support designing plans and / or itemizing costs? 15 years+ in business economics and finance. Precious experience as founder, co-founder, CEO, MD, and Advisor. Plus other co-founders and partners have a depth of experience and wisdom.
• What do you think RCA should be looking for when selecting the 12 place-based/regenerative development projects in this first cohort of applicants? Answers in previous form, and in multiple zoom conversations. I’m content with the criteria we have already established.
• How do you personally want to support the 12+ projects in the alliance's first cohort and at what capacity and commitment level? Answered this in the previous form.

Europe

Salt Cross Garden Village

https://odysee.com/@cohohub:4/RegenCivicsIncubator:c?r=3nA3fkHzSLF1N5zjga82M8LruBY2j6qx

• Representative Charlie Fisher, Collaborative Housing
• Location Oxfordshire, England
• How is the place-based/regenerative development project(s) you're representing regenerative?: Salt Cross Garden Village (Oxfordshire), as one of the more advanced of the UK Government's 37 'Garden Communities Programme' sites, should be a beacon of citizen-participation, community-wealth generation and ecological approaches in order to accord with the Garden City Principles (TCPA) that the programme enshrines. Within the 2,200 home masterplan which includes housing, office and retail, the Developer's key slogan is "a place that celebrates natural and social ecosystems, allowing wildlife, plants and people to co-exist, thrive and benefit from each other". There is an intention for the community ownership of assets across the site, including the 1,100 affordable homes, allowing the resources for adaptation and change over decades. Commitments for net biodiversity have been made with design-focus on embedding nature and wildlife and a passive/'fabric-first' home design approach with no gas infrastructure on site. 105 homes across three clustered neighbourhoods will be reserved for self-builders as per District planning policy. Contemporary housing development utilises a ‘Build it and Bugger Off’ approach, in which the communities are left without the resources to look after diverse ecological assets, upgrade infrastructure such as broadband, energy generation technologies or adapt their streets and homes as change comes. This approach will leave neighbourhoods severely under-prepared for the effects of impending climate disaster across the planet, as recognised by surrounding local councils. Our proposal is for the development of place-based wealth generation within a Community Land Trust to support sustained and nimble investment in Salt Cross and the village of Eynsham over decades.
• What values, goals, and focus areas are guiding your place-based regenerative project? Commons ownership for future resiliance, large-scale distributed governance, financing clustered cohousing groups and self-builders, building a finance model to be more ambitious around ecology and regenerative practices
• Is the property/land associated with this project currently owned privately, publicly or cooperatively? Private ownership
• What is the long-term ownership intention of this property/land: private, public, cooperative, fractional? Community Land Trust
• What is your legal structure? What type of or combination of legal entities will your project use to protect the land and the members? Charity, Sugested to be a Community Benefit Society at this stage.
• How many acres/hectares is this project? 154
• How many acres/hectares is native/untouched/wilderness? 5 - the existing fields are currently used almost entirely for monocropping agriculture and horsiculture
• How many acres/hectares will remain native/untouched/wilderness? - 5
• How many acres/hectares has been restored? 61 (proposed)
• What is the status of your project’s governance structure, or DAO (decentralized autonomous organization)? What support do you need to develop it further? The organisation to run the Community Land Trust is not yet formed however there is stong support, an identified founding group of local residents and one cohousing group. The Area Action Plan (the planning policy) for the site is in the final stages of sign off. Outline planning permission was submitted in July 2021 but has not yet approved. We at Collaborative Housing (CoHoHub), a non-profit enabling hub for citizen-led housing in the Thames Valley, were commissioned by the District Council in 2019 to build the feasibility case for three scenarios of community ownership and governance through Community Land Trust mechanisms. Preliminary costings have been undertaken for these approaches. [1] The vision is strong and large amounts of public money has been ploughed into this scheme, however, because it has been led by large-scale institutional finance within a traditional development environment, every step of the journey has been a struggle for the vision to meet reality on the ground. Like many large strategic schemes there is little requirement for long-term stewardship and ownership of assets that build common wealth, in addition to a lack of trust in the ability of the 'community' to run an effective estate management office. Despite the policy requirement for community land value capture and participation, past schemes by this developer indicate that without a persuasive alternative approah they will look to sell the maintenance and management rights to a private company with nominal/infrequent participation from unpaid neighbourhood representatives. Support need: The Salt Cross Garden Village Trust needs business-case development support (paid researchers/facilitators time, legal incorporation costs) to prototype large-scale governance approaches as a proof-of-concept on how residents and the neighbouring village could run their community and build common wealth. At this stage we are using the definition of ‘Autonomy’ within DAO as freedom to govern, however we are interested in how regenerative finance could trial new forms of autonomous relationships through staking and voting operations as new residents move into the scheme and the developers slowly phase out. We require support in building a DAO from scratch and lack technological/coding capabilities, although we have significant experience in cooperative place-based development and real-world community management so we tend to lean closer to the approaches we have found outlined in the [DisCO.coop](http://DisCO.coop) Manifesto. CoHoHub does not have funding for this early prototyping and by the time funding would be received through the land uplift and forecasted home sales (planning obligations, infrastructure levy) it will be many years too late to make the case for these approaches from a standing start. We would like to run a one year pilot to assemble and incorporate the trust as an online/offline entity, incorporating learning from being part of the Regen Civics Incubator on how to manage discussion and decisions in a large-scale distributed way, and build upon a regenerative treasury to enable this neighbourhood to thrive across decades. As we progress through the Incubator we would aim to build a partnership with the developer so that we are lining this Trust up to be the obvious choice for asset transfer.
• How are you integrating with the local community in your area? The existing small village of Eynsham, with origins back to records from 571CE, has a population of just under 5000 people. As a satellite-village that must contribute to meeting Oxford’s unmet housing need, this population will be doubled with the new Garden Village across the next decade, representing the most significant and rapid change in the village's recent history. The crux of much community discontent is due to the ecological impacts and the predicted disconnecting-effect of the busy existing A-road which will separate the old and new parts of the village through the middle. CoHoHub have been building relationships and running events with key community members for four years and one of our team-members has lived in the village for over a decade. Interviews in our 2019-20 report indicated strong community support for the creation of a Community Land Trust, with a very active local group applying pressure on ecology and energy approaches, of which for them a wealth-building community land trust is a key part. We believe that growing a trust for the whole of Eynsham would have a strong bonding effect between new and old communities as this large urban extension is built across the next decade.
• How many people does your project need to maintain or run the property, and are there limits to growth or how many people can live on the land? How many people are currently involved in your project? Based on similarly-sized communities analysed in the 2019-20 research period, we propose a professional estate management team of 15 staff members once the entire freehold ownership of the trust is transferred (approximately 2032). This team would grow year-on-year from one community organiser in 2022, through a staff of five once the first 50ha has been transferred, a staff of ten with half the land transferred and finally 15 employees running a trust with 5000 active and engaged members (assuming 50% engagement at large annual gatherings, a significant improvement on local electoral structures). This team would be suplemented by contracting-out services to various local companies for maintaining natural and community assets on site. The limit to growth is fixed by the planning permission to 2,200 homes and our costings indicate the need for roughly 0.045% on Gross Development Value to maintain a professional team and the annual maintenance costs. The number of residents required for successful and engaging distributed governance is harder to quantify and we will look to Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation’s learning in participatory budgeting, strategic planning, as well as events and festivals throughout the year. There are roughly 10 people as a core group. 5 of those are in a cohousing group. A further 20 or so are in the local action group that we've been working with.
• Have you addressed zoning, building codes, and taxes? The Master Developer, Grosvenor Developments Ltd, is dealing with the planning process and any levies/taxes on behalf of their landowner clients. These costs will be passed onto the sales price and projected rental cashflow of the homes on site and so the residents will carry the long-term burden of decisions taken today. Where cohousing groups are involved in direct-delivery of parts of the site they will require a separate business model which we are capable of supporting them with. Planning policy in England has insufficient requirements for zero carbon building or long-term governance, and so often these elements are squeezed in favour of retaining land price or developer profit. The inadequacy of policy therefore has a strong impact on our plans and we have to look elsewhere in the model to demonstrate value and cost-cutting (e.g. reduced need for sales team budgets with residents identified, reduced need for risky up-front finance with resident-capital employed, increased density due to more shared facilities etc.).
• Have you addressed zoning, building codes, and taxes? Our Stewardship Assessment appraised the management and maintenance of the trust through a number of approaches including an endowment, land value capture through planning obligations, annual grants, resident bonds, service charges and ground rents. It is likely that the trust will utilise an endowment from the development model alongside an annual service charge on residents as the principle mechanisms for covering annual costs including corporation tax and other property taxes. Council taxes will be covered by households. The trust will own and operate the 600 social rented properties on site and will take on government grant in order to do this.
• What kind of funding are you looking for and what are you looking to do with it? At this group-building phase we are looking for $65,000 grant-funding, not necessarily through the RCA in it's entirety. This would include the hiring of the first community organiser ($32,500), who would build support for incorporating the trust ($6,000) through a set of group-building events across 2022 and 2023 ($7,000) and progress the work on stewardship costs/values to build a credible argument for asset ownership ($19,500). We believe that after this phase we will be able to leverage funding from the Master Developer, Grosvenor, through the site-wide business model. CoHoHub is incubated within a Charity that has been in existence for over 100 years and so accounting would be over-seen by a Board of Trustees and supported by the Charity's administrative functions.
• What level of experience do you have budgeting for and actualizing a place-based/regenerative development? Do you need support designing plans and / or itemizing costs? I am a land trust advisor accredited with the Chartered Institute of Housing, with experience of assisting the setting up of 14 community trusts and cohousing groups since 2013 alongside published research for national bodies and funding institutions. Our support offer for CLTs and cohousing groups includes workshops and reporting on visioning, organisational development (primarily using sociocratic patterns), business planning, stakeholder influencing, and readying a group for being part of the design/construction team. Trained as an architect, I co-founded the hub for our sub-region (CoHoHub) which included building a business model for UK Government start-up grant-funding in 2019. Through this grant we have so far supported 26 groups in various stages of creating citizen-led homes across the Thames Valley, from single-house rental co-operatives to a 100-home urban-fringe eco development. This support was catalysed by the formation of a discussion and project management platform in 2020 as we pivoted to online support . Our team are experts at construction and development modelling, with subscriptions to development appraisal software for budgeting. One of our team also has an extensive stewardship business planning skillset having worked at the leading UK organisation at forming management trusts. The biggest scheme that we are actively project managing in construction is a 42-home affordable housing site in a small town so this project represents a step-up in ambition that we will need to leverage partnerships on. We require assistance on business planning and community management at a larger scale, ideation on innovative governance models, and approaches to establishing, building and managing a treasury with regenerative finance approaches. We will certainly need help tuning exactly how the RCA could help us achieve our aims and so some refininement of costing may be needed.
• What do you think RCA should be looking for when selecting the 12 place-based/regenerative development projects in this first cohort of applicants? Innovative experimentation (trying new things around regenerative ecovillages), including projects with a high potential of moving to action on an idea (but not excluding some risky experiments), equitable land ownership mechanisms (community/natural wealth-building meanwhile, short and long-term), if short-term a clear plan for bridging the short and long term as important to regenerative approaches.
• How do you personally want to support the 12+ projects in the alliance's first cohort and at what capacity and commitment level? Along with the above indicated skills, I can provide examples from the English experience of developing trusts, with knowledge of projects across rural and urban areas from the beginning of the Garden Cities movement (late 19th Century). I sit on the Research and Teaching group of the Center for CLT Innovation so I can leverage experience from our advisors who have international experience, maintain the directory of CLTs worldwide and operate TerraNostra press who (quite literally) wrote the book on CLTs. I can also offer design critique having co-run an architecture practice since 2015 which focuses on participatory and regenerative housing. I would have a few hours a month to be part of this cohort.

Traditional Dream Factory (member of Oasa)

• Representative: Samuel Delesque
• Location: Abela, Portugal
• 
How is the place-based/regenerative development project(s) you're representing regenerative? This may be a helpful resource: https://www.regenlive.org/what-is-regenerative:
  • 1. The land will be owned by a non profit, land trust emulating DAO structure in Switzerland, which enforces our Regenerative Land use agreement
  • 2. We are creating systems to enable self sufficiency and regeneration. See our Impact Map
• What values, goals, and focus areas are guiding your place-based regenerative project? We are empowering creativity, prototyping, play - creating a container for our members to grow and develop regenerative ways of living.
• Is the property/land associated with this project currently owned privately, publicly or cooperatively? It is currently owned privately with an agreement to transfer into a non profit.
• What is the long-term ownership intention of this property/land: private, public, cooperative, fractional? Non profit land trust emulating structure with a utility token granting members access to the space.
• What is your legal structure? What type of or combination of legal entities will your project use to protect the land and the members? Land title > Local ops company > Swiss non profit > DAO
• How many acres/hectares is this project? 25ha
• How many acres/hectares is native/untouched/wilderness? 0%
• How many acres/hectares will remain native/untouched/wilderness? 50% wild, 45% food forests and other forestry systems, 5% development.
• How many acres/hectares has been restored? 1.5ha reforested so far
• What is the status of your project’s governance structure, or DAO (decentralized autonomous organization)? What support do you need to develop it further? We are establishing sociocracy principles and developing our token and setting up our DAO stack as an ongoing process, and expect to have all structures finalized by end of year.
• How are you integrating with the local community in your area? Yes - we host events for the village, and the villagers love us. We have several villagers involved in building the project.
• How many people does your project need to maintain or run the property, and are there limits to growth or how many people can live on the land? How many people are currently involved in your project? We aim to be able to host up to 30 people in the first zone (coliving project), though we are a transition space and people come and go. We are geared towards mid-term stays. Last year we had 400 visitors.
• Have you addressed zoning, building codes, and taxes? We are waiting on final approval from city hall, but since it's just a change a use of existing buildings it's not as much of a burden as building from scratch.
• What kind of funding are you looking for and what are you looking to do with it? The total project cost is roughly 3M. We are looking to raise 0.5M this summer to get started with insulating the living building, building a natural pool, building grey and black water systems so that we can up-cycle as much water as possible, building out a mushroom farm etc. See roadmap on website.
• What level of experience do you have budgeting for and actualizing a place-based/regenerative development? Do you need support designing plans and / or itemizing costs? As co-founders of re:build we have plenty of resources in the network, though always interested in connecting more dots and getting more people involved.
• What do you think RCA should be looking for when selecting the 12 place-based/regenerative development projects in this first cohort of applicants? Love the questions so far, really important to nail the legal structure, to have the permits, and to ensure the focus has good governance mechanisms. Would recommend developing some for of Impact Score - this is something we are interested in building into the platform we are creating for regenerative communities (Closer) - even a simple first evaluation that can then be upgraded with each cohort.
• How do you personally want to support the 12+ projects in the alliance's first cohort and at what capacity and commitment level? Would love to give out free access to Closer platform as well as provide support through re:build network.

Liminal Village

• Representative: Laura van Wijngaarden, Roberto Valenti, Jillian Hovey
• Videos: 2030 Vision Liminal Village Vibes
• Location: Italy
• 
How is the place-based/regenerative development project(s) you're representing regenerative? This may be a helpful resource:
  • On the Personal level: we make use of regenerative practices for the body, the spirit, the community and the planet. Our wholistic understanding of “regenerative” includes the regeneration of humans as integral to the process. We are shifting the paradigm from homo economicus to a wholistic multi-scale human, which strives to balance his/her contribution on the personal, local, and global level.
  • On the Local level: Liminal Village is a regenerative eco-tech hub, fully powered by solar energy,  and insulated by hemp. We have constructed a water collection system where all water falling on any hard surfaces on the property is collected into several water basins. The collected water is kept ‘alive’, continuously aerated, circulated and filtered by our own open-source biochar water filtration system. We are experimenting with both high-tech precision farming (eg: farmbot, hydroponics) and low-tech permaculture technologies (no-till gardens, swales, keyline plowing, regenerative grazing, etc. ). We are designing cheap and sustainable housing units (underground or lightweight suspended structures, which won’t require building permits thus accessible to all). We aim to kickstart a regenerative network by sharing the acquired know-how, materials and workforce with the new hubs, which lifts up the knowledge of the traditional Italian cultivation practices, while stimulating and informing it with permaculture knowledge that will help us co-create wholistic regenerative patterns over time.
  • On the Global level: we aim to actively co-create the next human coordination paradigm, a regenerative network starting from interdependent physical sustainable initiatives and hubs, and supporting the whole by creating open digital and physical infrastructures to connect them to form a holistic “superorganism”. We enhance the resilience of the network through a long-term, multi- and Inter-generational approach, focusing on interdependence and long-term diversification and adaptability of each hub. Every hub has the responsibility of aiding new hubs around their location, growing the network regenerative capacity by exchanging knowledge, tools and resources between them. On that mindset, we have recently purchased a former brick factory and a quarry, which has more than 6000 cubic meters of building permit, and which will be the next eco-tech village of our network. This is where we would like to use web3 technologies to tokenise the property, track contributions, do governance and to put Ostrom’s principles into practice to turn the location into a common. This regenerative hub will also function as the main maker site for the open source life-supporting technologies (energy, housing, food, water) for the entire network.
• What values, goals, and focus areas are guiding your place-based regenerative project?
  • Research and develop replicable, open-source, high- and low-tech systems which help meet objective human needs.
  • Facilitate the transition from private to common ownership, focusing on regenerative "real-value" economies, by utilising Ostrom’s principles, ReFi and web3 technologies.
  • Apply an Integral, wholistic mindset to every problem and solution
  • Kickstart a regenerative bioregional network with a regenerative economy based on Real Value.
  • Being a model and a source of inspiration and support for others and to grow the local, bioregional, national, and international network
  • Lifting up and use the best of Game A, while we bring Game B to Life
  • Use wholistic permaculture design, for both land and human ecologies
  • Use natural cycles/biomimicry to guide our processes
  • Moving from competition & scarcity to collaboration & abundance
  • Using Non-dualism (“both and”) and non-coercion as guiding principles
  • Learning from group dynamics, guide and encourage people to balance being (shadow work, transgenerational patterns) and doing (Ikigai, collaboration, gifting)
• Is the property/land associated with this project currently owned privately, publicly or cooperatively?
  • Currently the locations are privately owned, but they represent an "asset investment" in the network.
• What is the long-term ownership intention of this property/land: private, public, cooperative, fractional?
  • We aim to facilitate the creation of new hubs as community places, fractionally owned by the network cooperative (which supports it with resources and knowledge), the stewards (who monitor,  maintain and improve the hubs), and resource investors (who funded the endeavour with money, time, land or other resources unavailable to the network). Every node is currently privately owned, with an exit-to-community strategy. The brick factory complex will be  turned into a collectively owned eco-tech makerspace/village, proportionally owned by anyone who contributes to it.
• What is your legal structure? What type of or combination of legal entities will your project use to protect the land and the members?
  • Every hub in the network has or will have its own independent non-profit association or social enterprise with a clearly defined and interrelated social purpose (its DNA). This is to enrich autonomy and agency. All hubs will join as a member of a  (platform) cooperative to perform mutualized exchanges of tools, goods and services with each other, creating an exchange network of non-profit associations and social enterprises.
• How many acres/hectares is this project?
  • A total of ± 9 hectares.
• How many acres/hectares is native/untouched/wilderness?
  • 4 hectares
• How many acres/hectares will remain native/untouched/wilderness?
  • > 5 hectares(rewilding, afforestation)
• How many acres/hectares has been restored?
  • 3 hectares are regenerating
• What is the status of your project’s governance structure, or DAO (decentralized autonomous organization)? What support do you need to develop it further?
  • Although we have experimented with a DAO, so far we did not have a necessity to actively use it for decision making, since we have been experimenting with community self-governance for 28 lunar cycles (lunations) where the local temporary community proposes and chooses the patterns which resonate the most. Across associations, we are experimenting with a soft version of sociocracy/holacracy, where every association makes independent decisions. Having a well tested and simple-to-use DHO system will be required to make the transition from local initiatives to a bioregional regenerative network.
• How are you integrating with the local community in your area?
  • We have co-created and stewarded a common kindergarten hub with 24 families, who share their bioregional “Zone 1” (traveling to it twice a day, 5 days a week)
  • We helped to develop the site with tools, workforce, knowledge and mindset, and crowdfunding of school building.
  • We purchased part of the land so it has the security to continue to develop into a regen community node.
  • We use the common space to invite locals to regenerative workshops, lectures and activities.
  • We take part in a small food cooperative which produces flour, chickpeas, pasta, olive oil; and a permaculture center.
  • We are co-founding a perinatal integral health/coworking space for mothers (to be) together with the local community
  • We have regular meetings (weekly/monthly, depending on the proximity) with people from local and bioregional communities (we will soon include municipalities).
  • During this summer we are organising a bioregional gathering to discuss and showcase a variety of regenerative subjects, including agriculture, technology, health and networking, a ReFi conference in Bologna, and a hackathon for smart villages.
• How many people does your project need to maintain or run the property, and are there limits to growth or how many people can live on the land? How many people are currently involved in your project?
  • The expenses and taxation are the responsibility of the hub stewards. In the majority of cases, these can be fully covered by revenues of ecotourism during summer time.  Property taxes are relatively low and manageable for our network because all locations are primary residences of the stewards, which gives tax advantages. Liminal Village and the kindergarten are both on land zoned rural residential / agriculture. We are developing legal associations for these properties which will change the zoning to Institutional, and will allow education centers to be developed, which will accommodate more buildings. The brick factory, on the other hand has more than 6000 cubic meters of building permit for touristic/residential area, in a location close to the main city (8 min away from the city center, 20 min from Liminal Village).
• Have you addressed zoning, building codes, and taxes?
  • We are currently looking for structures for the crypto-community to invest in “real value” (i.e. based on actual resources), aiding the manifestation of this network by staking assets to empower the creation of new hubs within the network. Their funds would be backing a network of interdependent initiatives, rather than funding an individual initiative. Besides  access to the locations, and rights to the produce and services of the regenerative network, the investor can get fractional ownership of the real estate properties, which will necessarily increase in value due to the regeneration practice. We would use the funds to purchase tools, materials and machinery which will be shared across the local nodes in the network in order to expand as fast as we can. We estimate we would need a minimum of 1M euros to kickstart the network effectively.
• Have you addressed zoning, building codes, and taxes?
  • Same question as above
• What kind of funding are you looking for and what are you looking to do with it?
  • We are currently looking for structures for the crypto-community to invest in “real value” (i.e. based on actual resources), aiding the manifestation of this network by staking assets to empower the creation of new hubs within the network. Their funds would be backing a network of interdependent initiatives, rather than funding an individual initiative. Besides  access to the locations, and rights to the produce and services of the regenerative network, the investor can get fractional ownership of the real estate properties, which will necessarily increase in value due to the regeneration practice. We would use the funds to purchase tools, materials and machinery which will be shared across the local nodes in the network in order to expand as fast as we can. We estimate we would need a minimum of 1M euros to kickstart the network effectively
• What level of experience do you have budgeting for and actualizing a place-based/regenerative development? Do you need support designing plans and / or itemizing costs?
  • This vision has been in the works for many years, and we have transitioned into the physical plane with a budget and resources. To date, all works have been self-funded or crowd-funded. We have the support of an experienced construction company manager in our community, who is nearing retirement, and wanting to transition to applying his knowledge and skills to support the development of sites, and the network overall. Although we have acquired a good deal of experience in the development of our Liminal Village site so far, we are always learning. We have the support of a very experienced permaculture and ecovillage designer and community facilitator, so we are learning with her, and are wanting to host on-going educational programmes, and learners, with a focus on potential community members. We will require a scalable accounting system which will function as an overview of the resources and needs of the network.
• What do you think RCA should be looking for when selecting the 12 place-based/regenerative development projects in this first cohort of applicants?
  • Vision, innovation, diversity, local and global collaboration, shared values, replicable solutions, feasibility, scaling opportunities, vicinity to other initiatives, strategic  location for impact, web3 literacy, integral approach (4 quadrants)
• How do you personally want to support the 12+ projects in the alliance's first cohort and at what capacity and commitment level?
  • Experience with crypto prototypes and primitives
  • Agent-centric perspectives
  • Social aspects of community building
  • Technical expertise on smart contracts and tokenomics
  • Experience with using tokens in a community settings
  • Mentorship from Elders on our team
  • Support in developing the ecology of RCA

United States

The Tioga Community

• Representative: Tucker Trussell (@TuckerJTrussell)
• Location: Wonalancet, NH & Orrington, ME
• Intro Video: Watch now
• How is the place-based/regenerative development project(s) you're representing regenerative?
  • The Tioga Community has several ways in which we are regenerative. On the spiritual level, we offer connection and support by means of our overarching spiritual society, Rhizae Society. One of our Trustees hosts an online spiritual support group called ConnectiviTea. On the mental and emotional realm, we build real connections with people and network with other communities that have similar intentions. We are always looking to create long term and healthy relationships. In New Hampshire, we are moving towards a “one small town” movement, which is the networking of several properties in one town to align in similar goals and regenerative projects to really make a change. In the physical realm we have two of our Trustees that hold leadership roles in Permatours, an organization which travels around to land locations and co-creates regenerative projects with the land owners. On our own land, we plan to sequester carbon from the air, plant trees, participate in sustainable forestry, replenish the soil and grow organic food, restore the land in harmony with nature, recycle, upcycle, use alternative energy sources when possible, and continuously be striving to improve upon the Earth and leave things better than we found them.
• What values, goals, and focus areas are guiding your place-based regenerative project?
  • The Tioga Community is founded in three main concepts that capture our core values and beliefs. Whenever there is a situation where choices need to be made, and there is more than one possible route, we can always relate back to our core values and beliefs to see if the decision aligns. The fundamentals can relate back to: always doing everything out of love and intending no harm, while focusing on our connections with ourselves, each other, and planet Earth.
    • Always Choose Love: - Spiritual - Do everything out of love. Intend for the highest good of all. (Radical Self Care, Intend No Harm, Harbor Good Intentions, Gratitude, Compassion, Strive For Balance)
    • Interpersonal Connection: - Mental, Emotional - Treat others as yourself with honor and respect. Do our own inner work and be willing to support others as well. (Golden Rule, Vulnerability, Accountability, Have Integrity, Radical Self Reliance, Transparency with Responsibility, Playfulness and Fun, Integration, Radical Interdependence, Sovereignty and Social Responsibility, Loyalty, Friendship, Courage, Self-discipline)
    • Earth Stewardship: - Physical - Care for the Earth and our environment through practices such as regenerative farming, permaculture, and consideration for all living things. (Leave a Better Place, Communal Effort, Permaculture, Positive Work Ethic)
    • Goals and Focus: To create a safe place where we can live in alignment with our core values and beliefs. Building an intentional community that is regenerative and sustainable to the best of our abilities while deepening the connection with ourselves and all life.
• Is the property/land associated with this project currently owned privately, publicly or cooperatively?
  • Steele Farm - Owned by Helen Steele. Moving towards placing into a Land Trust.
  • Dedham, ME - Private or bank owned. Needs to be purchased.
  • Orrington, ME - Bank owned with a mortgage to Evan Ettinger, a Tioga Trustee. Remaining balance approximately 142k.
• What is the long-term ownership intention of this property/land: private, public, cooperative, fractional?
  • We plan to transition properties into their own individual Private Land Trusts or DAO Land Trusts. We aim to move towards a shared equity model where members who have contributed sufficient capital (all 10 forms) will have receive Trust Capital Tokens which represent capital interest in a Land Trust and therefore share in the benefits of the execution of the Trust. While the Land Trust will technically own the property, this is decentralized and operates only in the best interest of the beneficiaries, which can be every vested member in a particular private membership association or Land Trust. Each member who has met equity exchange requirements will receive Trust Capital Tokens (TCTs) which can also be represented by a token on the blockchain. This is like indirectly owning part of the land in which they are participating in a community as their share can be held, transferred, or sold.
• What is your legal structure? What type of or combination of legal entities will your project use to protect the land and the members?
  • Our project will use a combination of two entities, a Private Land Trusts to hold the land and a Private Membership Association to hold the members. The land trust protects the lands and releases liability and ownership from all members, members will be issued Trust Capital Tokens to represent their capital interest in the community. The Private Members Association will handle the member journey including application, peer review, acceptance, and governance. Members will be issued Voice Governance Tokens represented on the blockchain at certain milestones throughout their membership journey (acceptance, 2 years, 10 years, council of elders, etc.) that will give them voting power in the DAO governance platform using Hypha's DAO Tool. The community will also elect certain representatives to handle administrative duties and other important tasks like conflict resolution and certain project leadership roles. Members will also be encouraged to form cooperative businesses leveraging their joint skills and passions to create symbiotic economic and business relationships using a template tokenized equity model that the community provides through the Hypha DAO tool.
• How many acres/hectares is this project?
  • Steele Farm - 106 acres. Most of the acreage is in a land conservation. About 13 acres can be further developed for housing for additional 10 members. There are already about 55 acres of hay fields. Several acres can be used as farm land and there is already 1 acre of garden beds.
  • Dedham, ME - 706 acres. Partial land conservation, over half of this land can be developed creating room for 50-100 families potentially. As many acres as needed can be used as farm land up to 200 acres.
  • Orrington, ME - 7 acres with a 5 bedroom house. Land owned by one of our Trustees which can be used as a catalyst hub for members while building Dedham. 2 or 3 yurts and/or tiny homes can be placed here. The land can support 6-10 members and is most likely temporary community space. 2 acres can be used as farm land.
• How many acres/hectares is native/untouched/wilderness?
  • Steele Farm - 106 acres. Most of the acreage is in a land conservation. About 30 acres can be developed and housing for additional 10 members can be built. There is already about 50 acres of hay fields. Several acres can be used as farm land.
  • Dedham, ME - 706 acres. Partial land conservation, much of this land can be developed creating room for 50-100 families potentially. As many acres as needed can be used as farm land up to 200 acres.
  • Orrington, ME - 7 acres with a 5 bedroom house. Land owned by one of our Trustees which can be used as a catalyst hub for members while building Dedham. 2 or 3 yurts and/or tiny homes can be placed here. The land can support 6-10 members and is most likely temporary community space. 2 acres can be used as farm land.
• How many acres/hectares will remain native/untouched/wilderness?
  • Steele Farm - 106 acres. Most of the acreage is in a land conservation. About 30 acres can be developed and housing for additional 10 members can be built. There is already about 50 acres of hay fields. Several acres can be used as farm land.
  • Dedham, ME - of the 706 acres we plan to leave 1/3 native wilderness with selective forestry maintenance for the health of the forest, 1/3 for food production and 1/3 for housing and infrastructure.
  • Orrington, ME of the 7 acres about 2 acres remain forested and they will stay that way with the addition of some planned regenerative forestry practices.
• What is the status of your project’s governance structure, or DAO (decentralized autonomous organization)? What support do you need to develop it further?
  • Tioga Community is currently governed by Tioga Land Trust, represented by a group of 6 Trustees who have created Tioga Land Trust in September of 2021. We hold weekly board meetings. Tioga Land Trust decisions require ⅔ quorum (66%) with a supermajority vote required to pass (65%). Tioga Land Trust currently operates in a Sociocracy governance model. As more community members come on board and we acquire physical land, there will be other models within the umbrella of a larger overarching spiritual society. Each land location will be in it’s own Land Trust and within each location will be smaller work groups and guilds that will have the ability to set their own governance system as seen fit by the participating members. In short, there will be fractals of governance within governance and everything working together like the individual organs in a body that all participate in the overall health of the being. We are currently in the process of discussing merging decision making and governance with the blockchain and utilizing DAO tools such as those provided by Hypha.
• How are you integrating with the local community in your area?
  • Michelle has been promoting the Sandwich community for a number of years while living there and developing a neighboring community and farm.  We have been using our time at that community to branch out to local work, and a major part of our effort is the benefit that drawing a pool of young and skilled people will bring to the area.  Ryan has lived in the area for the past four years and runs a successful roofing business, Michael is getting tree related jobs, and Michelle has been working in nearby Conway since Summer.  We have made a good core of connections within a radius of these farms that gives us the evidence that our usefulness and applicability to the area is true.
  • We are advocates for the One Small Town movement as presented by Michael Tellinger, and feel this is one amazing location to bring a small, rural community together with the spirit of self-reliance within community-sufficiency, proactive cooperation and small business development that can bring an area to life, creativity and a positive way into the future.
  • Evan is a homeowner in Orrington, Maine which is local to Dedham Maine for that land opportunity. Evan plans to bring more members to his land to live either in the house, or in tiny homes or yurts on his land, enabling a catalyst hub for building the Dedhman property. This would also turn ito a mini homestead site that can be developed and further linked in with local community. There are several farms in the area and even other homesteads. Maine also has an elderly population and after integrating more with the community and building connections, it’s possible that other may be interested in the Land Trust Grantor model that Tioga Community can offer.
• How many people does your project need to maintain or run the property, and are there limits to growth or how many people can live on the land? How many people are currently involved in your project?
  • Steele Farm - The property and existing infrastructure here needs only about 2-3 people to function but could support and thrive with 12-20 people however our plan is to implement the one small town movement and bring the neighbors onboard, expanding outward instead of upward.
  • Dedham, ME - 706 acres. Partial land conservation, much of this land can be developed creating room for 50-100 families potentially. As many acres as needed can be used as farm land up to 200 acres.
  • Orrington, ME - This property requires only 2-3 people to operate but could support 12-20. Again the plan here is to act as a hub and catalyst for outward expansion.
• Have you addressed zoning, building codes, and taxes?
  • Zoning in all of our locations is pretty lenient and with them all being small towns we feel integrating into the town council and planning boards to be crucial to the continued expansion of our movement.
• What kind of funding are you looking for and what are you looking to do with it?
  • Plans: We have several plans to fundraise for Tioga Community. One plan included creating a private membership association (PMA) with an annual fee to join. This would grant a member access to our network of communities and resources. We are also planning to pool together personal monies, land, equipment, or other resources from community members as they join specific projects and Land Trusts and exchange them for Trust Capital Units. We have a Grantor Model which enables a grantor to grant land and resources into a Land Trust that will be managed by Tioga Trustees. We are working with RegenNFTs to create funding through cryptocurrency and social impact projects. We will develop our own NFTs and launch them on the RegenNFT platform. We are applying to be a part of Regenerative Civics Coalition’s fist cohort and hope to receive crypto grants through this avenue. After establishment of the communities, we will have several cooperatively owned businesses that will share some profit with Tioga Community.
  • Goals: Our goal is to fund multiple land projects where we will build intentional, sustainable, and regenerative communities, creating DAO Land Trusts for each project. Then we will be connecting many communities into a larger spiritual society called Rhizae Society. We need about $70,000 to get started on our first Grantor Model - Steele Farm in Wonalancet, NH where we are already working with the land owner. We estimate $755,383 to get started on our Purchase Model to buy and start developing land in Dedham, ME. There is no upper limit to abundance and properties included within the Tioga Community scope. We are open to all opportunities and also strive to create a model that others can duplicate in starting their own communities.
• What level of experience do you have budgeting for and actualizing a place-based/regenerative development? Do you need support designing plans and / or itemizing costs?
  • Tucker Trussell: I have been researching and building regenerative communities for over 2 years now having lived and worked at several.  I have experience planting permaculture food forests and organic no till farming with a focus on regenerating soil life.  I also have experience with regenerative herding and grazing practices working on a sheep farm with the primary focus of improving the efficiency and long and short term regenerative goals of the property.
  • Michael Giroux:  Beginning in 2009, I traveled to practice Ecoforestry, Natural Building, and Homesteading with mentors.  A few examples from that year: I helped design, selectively clear and plant a 1/3 acre food forest within a mature stand of 100+ foot Oregon firs; helped revive a homestead that was in neglect, using goats to clear overgrown areas and utilize latent materials on the farm to install ~100’ of 6 foot metal fencing to expand the garden by 1/4 acre, (among many other projects and a dairy goat herd) all while teaching and working with WWOOF volunteers; and later built a greenhouse in an urban garden made entirely of scrap materials I saved from job sites.  I share these examples of the past, also to place that these methods and concepts have been with me for a long while.
  • Evan Ettinger: In 2016 I briefly stayed in Maui on a sustainable farm doing work trade. In 2018 I attended and completed Earthship Academy, where I began learning how to build the Earthship Biotecture way. Personal efforts continue on my own property and helping out in the community space.
  • We could however always use more support in the planning and business model of the project in order to ensure the highest level of succes
• How do you personally want to support the 12+ projects in the alliance's first cohort and at what capacity and commitment level?
  • I think that Tioga has a lot of value to add with our trust documents and I would love to work with a team to create the model for a tokenized equity trust or DAO Trust. I would however need assistance with the blockchain development side.

Heartland Collective

• Representative: Anders Gustavsson: Visionary, co-founder, project lead, build coordinator, volunteer manager and 7 other hats not yet mentioned :)
• Location:
• 
How is the place-based/regenerative development project(s) you're representing regenerative? This may be a helpful resource:
  • Heartland Collective is to humans what an abundant jungle is for the species that live there. The most lush, abundant, and diverse jungle’s in Costa Rica gave Heartland Collective its initial inspiration. The abundant life experience we can witness animal & plant species receive in the jungle is what Heartland Collective aims to mimic for humans.
  • A yearly Permaculture Design Certification keeps all 12 permaculture principles high on the values list to support the system to continually improve itself to be as whole as possible. As the visionary of this project, my life purpose is to help others find and activate their life purpose. Heartland Collective is designed to be a platform to live my purpose. Since we started our project we’ve had over 400 volunteers and residents help build Heartland, and we are humbled by how often we get feedback affirming people’s transformation. Secondarily, the purpose of Heartland is to provide a startup incubator to invent, prototype, model, and create businesses that are duplicable at other land based projects.
  • Our community is built on the philosophies of The 4 Agreements (don Miguel Ruiz), Braving the Wilderness (Brene Brown), and non-violent communication. Through the invitation of personal growth our relationships with each other go deep quite quickly. The inclusivity, diversity, and patience our leadership offers creates a safe place to learn and to make mistakes.
  • We are currently 100% off-grid and function sustainably 85-90% of the year through solar power with batteries as backup, and generators as a redundant power source. We have 6 biofilter EcoZoic commercial compost toilets enabling us to safely close the loop in our waste cycle and create a valuable resource from our waste. Our drinking water is from our 20 gal/min well (measured in drought). Solar power pumps the water to the high point of our land, and gravity feeds us up to 28,800 gallons of water per day to our project. Our farm, irrigation, and retreat currently only uses roughly 2,000 gal per day.
  • We started implementing a full permaculture land design in 2021 seeded at our first annual Permaculture Design Certification course. We expect the plan to take roughly 5 more years to complete the full design. Our full design plan offers a massive diversity of species, native reforestation efforts, food forest, orchard, Vineyard, water catchment, pond development, and further power redundancy.
  • We currently operate a 1 acre food farm designed to feed our volunteers and residents. We grow an abundance of food in order to offer retreat visitors opportunities to purchase farm fresh food boxes, as well as to offer events full farm to table experiences.
  • The long term model of Heartland Collective is multifunctional and flexible. It is designed to self-fund itself, provide an amazing home for participants co-creating the system, provide community and great people to connect with, as well as offer very lucrative business opportunities for people to join. If there are major world emergencies the flexibility of the design offers a natural digression from business to community and people care. All add-on financial models are designed to be agile, modular, and collaborative so they can be removed if they are ineffective and duplicated at other centers if they are successful. All add-on business models incubated from Heartland are designed to leverage all the positive aspects of living within this system to create a better place for people not so fortunate.
  • In the next phase of this project, we aim to place the land in a land trust to ensure a long term multigenerational project as an example of a real place where all the regenerative principles can be witnessed. To begin modeling everything we have done thus far we have created CoLab Campout, which is in its 4th year in April. CoLab Campout is a village building immersive experience. It’s our flagship project that has laid the foundation to everything we’ve created. See: CoLabCampout.com Transpersonal consciousness is a common exploration among long term residents.
  • Our group studies Human Design and Gene Keys which offer insights to our uniqueness as well as the uniqueness of our visitors and volunteers. The only future we see is one of Synarchy (Gene Key 44). “Synarchy means we all lead together! It doesn’t mean that we’re all the same. Not at all. It means that our uniqueness has a place within the orchestra, and instead of just playing a nice tune and being oblivious to all those around us, we begin to play in harmony with everyone.” – Richard Rudd, 64 Ways
• What values, goals, and focus areas are guiding your place-based regenerative project?: Heartland Collective was founded by a mother-son team in 2014. The goal was to develop a visionary project to offer a land based alternative lifestyle to serve all future generations with a regenerative way to live. Personal development is deeply seeded in the Heartland culture. We request all volunteers and residents to read The 4 Agreements, and these are 4 very supportive guiding principles to our collective. All 12 permaculture principles are also practiced in as many settings and situations as possible.
• Is the property/land associated with this project currently owned privately, publicly or cooperatively?: The land is currently held privately in a family trust. The project was founded by Anders Gustavsson (me) and my mother Anna-Lena Gustavsson. As we near the completion of phase 1 we are also in preparation mode to shift the land into a land trust, and utilize the blockchain to decentralize ownership into a cooperative model.
• What is the long-term ownership intention of this property/land: private, public, cooperative, fractional?: We are in the application process of an official 8 unit retreat center. At face value, Heartland Collective is a basic small retreat center. On the backend, each unit plus each main house will have one cooperative ownership stake of the project. Short term, the project and property offers nightly retreat access to a 200-500 person membership, and 1 mo/year timeshare type access to each cooperative member. We are also starting to build our VR twin offering access to anyone with VR goggles to see, experience, and learn from our model. We plan on offering fractional project ownership through the acquisition of virtual real estate. Long term, IF other pandemics and/or other disaster takes place each cooperative member can rest assured they have a dialed village to plug into.
• What is your legal structure? What type of or combination of legal entities will your project use to protect the land and the members?: We currently run our Retreat & Hospitality business as an LLC, and we leverage the Empowerment Works fiscal sponsorship for volunteer program. Our land is currently in a family trust. We are currently exploring our next steps to ensure all our bases are covered, and so that the land and members are protected. We are open to support in this arena.
• How many acres/hectares is this project?: Heartland Collective is 24.5 acres now. We also intend to acquire the adjoining 200 acres as these new parcels come on the market.
• How many acres/hectares is native/untouched/wilderness?: All 24.5 acres are rolling hills with 300+ year old old growth Oaks. It’s roughly 20 acres of native land, and 4.5 acres of development including a 2 acre farm. We are also surrounded by a 2,000 acre reservoir (when full) as more than 1,000 acres of never to be touched wilderness.
• How many acres/hectares will remain native/untouched/wilderness?: Other than the footprint of our new maker space, unbuilt retreat buildings, indoor gathering space and main property house the plan is to regenerate the soil, plant native plants, shrubs, and trees to enable the true native wilderness to return. If native areas are lightly developed, it would be done using organic architecture accenting nature itself. As we acquire more adjoining land parcels we can have a higher percentage of native land.
• How many acres/hectares has been restored?: We have started adding perennial food forests and swales to roughly 1 acre. We have not yet started our larger land regeneration plans, but will do so in 2022-2023. We’ve planted more than 2 dozen fruit trees and we have plans to plant dozens more native and perennial food plants, shrubs, and trees. We have a bio-char soil remediation strategy which will offer massive benefits to our project and to other sister projects.
• What is the status of your project’s governance structure, or DAO (decentralized autonomous organization)? What support do you need to develop it further?: As we set out to launch our membership system, cooperative ownership plan, and property token we are excited to integrate a DAO structure. We have read Holocracy and studied a few governance structures but have not done so in depth. We have been blessed with a very small agile management team that listens very well to eachother and trusts deeply, so we have not yet required a larger governance system. We know it is a natural next step. To do so, we request direct input, consultation, and collaboration from the RCA team to help activate our DAO plan.
• How are you integrating with the local community in your area?: We host a yearly village building immersion called CoLab Campout (colabcampout.com) which draws mostly a local crowd to see, experience, and collaborate on land projects. This event is also designed to be a model for village building events. Within 6-12 months we will begin offering the event template to stewards of other land projects to save them from making the same mistakes we did. We also host men’s circles and regular community events around our Kiva fire for local community to gather to listen, share, and support each other. We are friendly with all our neighbors and have relatively good relationships with those neighbors that are interested in connecting. We are not close with some neighbors because they came way out in the country to be alone…and that’s ok too.
• How many people does your project need to maintain or run the property, and are there limits to growth or how many people can live on the land? How many people are currently involved in your project?: We currently have 4 people involved in the project on various levels of engagement. We regularly have 3-8 volunteers on-site. Today, our very basic needs to run the property are 3 people. That consists of an AirBnb/Hipcamp manager, a farm manager, and a maintenance/project manager. We are in a build phase now, so we usually have 6-10 people on site supporting all the budding projects. We can not technically have many permanent residents. Technically, people living at Heartland need to be in support of the business as contractors, employees, or partners. As we scale our hospitality, our farm, land regeneration and Fractal Marks (fractalmarks.com initial NFT/Metaverse startup venture we’re launching) we will host 8-10 residents and a 2-4 person volunteer program.
• Have you addressed zoning, building codes, and taxes? If so, how are they being addressed and/or how are they impacting your plans?: We are zoned AG-Residential and we have discussed our plans with our county. They have recommended we apply for retreat center permitting. The land is currently owned free and clear, and our current Glamping & Tiny Home accommodations cover our current land expenses. We expect the permitting process to take 6-12 months.
• Have you addressed zoning, building codes, and taxes? If so, how are they being addressed and/or how are they impacting your plans?: We currently pay $5,500/year. Our expansion plans will significantly raise the value of our property as well as the property taxes. As our infrastructure improves we can also raise our hospitality prices to cover an increase in value. We also have a membership system that will be tied to fractional ownership as well as access to our metaverse digital twin which is intended to function as a VR entertainment venue. We are also leveraging the property as a startup incubator offering various additional sources of revenue potential.
• What kind of funding are you looking for and what are you looking to do with it?: We have a creative self sustaining model that can provide all the funding we require. Without more seed funding our launch will just be delayed a year. A sum of $250,000 would be ideal to seed and speed our launch efforts. This funding would offer access to a larger leadership team offering minimal salaries to a few key positions. We would also apply this funding to foundational elements required for our new shop zone. Our new shop is for our new maker space building to house our 3D Printer. We have a partnership stake in a MudBot Concrete 3D Printer (200K value), we just need the shop to bring it in.
• What level of experience do you have budgeting for and actualizing a place-based/regenerative development (i.e. building sustainable structures, permaculture gardens, rain water catcher or water filtration systems)? Do you need support designing plans and / or itemizing costs?: What we have accomplished to date without outside support showcases our ability to follow through. We have planned, built, and created the beginning phase of a dream that is in full alignment with regenerative place building. We have a gorgeous permaculture plan in place, and have begun its implementation. We have built Heartland as it is from scratch. We can plan, budget, build, manage, and lead large teams of collaborators. Since we host Permaculture teachers here at Heartland yearly, we have access to a lot of professionals that can support us in continuing to make the best systems.
• What do you think RCA should be looking for when selecting the 12 place-based/regenerative development projects in this first cohort of applicants? (i.e. criteria, objectives, characteristics, etc. associated with "regeneration"): - Ability to execute - Ability to teach and lead others - Coachable and open project leadership - Multifaceted team experience - Land should ideally be owner free & clear - Showcase as many aspects of regenerative living as possible (I’d create a point system based on the 30 Principles & Systems from https://www.regenlive.org/what-is-regenerative) - Project should be as far along as possible to minimize RCA’s risk - Ability to professionally run a media team to capture and share the progress to teach the entire world what is possible.
• How do you personally want to support the 12+ projects in the alliance's first cohort and at what capacity and commitment level?: I think my biggest asset to share is how I leveraged the internet to get 13,000+ hours of volunteer help to complete our phase 1. That’s nearly $195,000 saved at minimum wage rates, although a lot of the support was skilled labor in construction, media, solar power, and art. The money being saved is only one benefit. The entire place is now seeded with great positive energy which has revitalized the energy of the land so much. The vast majority of this world wide group of volunteers have been uplifted and received great cultural exchange experiences they will cherish for the rest of their lives. If I was involved as one of the 12, I would also be willing to mentor future participants to carry out similar missions. I would also offer the opportunity for someone that is not yet as far along in their own projects to shadow and support me in all my day to day activities. This could be a paid course or an internship. This could really help the selection process for RCA, as well as offer high level support to my project. If I had that opportunity 7 years ago, this would have been done with a lot less mistakes! It would also be very helpful for RCA to receive feedback from me on the character and work ethic of these intern-founders from my boots on the ground experiences with those applicants.

LaLa Gardens

• Representative Christina Trout, Steward, on the deed and holder of mortgages.
• Location Fort Collins, Colorado
• 
How is the place-based/regenerative development project(s) you're representing regenerative? This may be a helpful resource: https://www.regenlive.org/what-is-regenerative: As an established permaculture designed project, both as a site and social design. This is a Natural Farm utilizing indigenous technologies to restore the ecosystem as well as cultivate nutrient dense foods and medicines while preserving the garden into it's natural succession. We utilize inter-species systems and IMO (Indigenous Micro Organisms) technologies to build soil and increase diversity. We have water systems through catchment to hold and store water. We are a membership model open to a small number of artists residencies and short term immersion courses. We have community outreach through ignition of 'Trade Routes.' The industries that emerge through the function of an increasingly diverse and robust garden are utilizing a point system towards skill acquisition and shared economy. We are feet in the Soil, head in the Cloud (so offer a rooted model (sandbox) for web3 projects aligned with regenerative systems to keep things 'grounded' in real place and time, seasonal and living data responsive). Here is the Notion page for LaLa Gardens: https://www.notion.so/gitcoin/LaLa-Gardens-All-is-in-the-Small-2ac79b3a724e49e99590908e37a5ad28
• What values, goals, and focus areas are guiding your place-based regenerative project? All is in the Small. To establish the garden as an entity with rights and recognitions as a successive garden through regenerative functions that are described in a document based on Natural Farming as mentored by Rei Yoon (South Korean Natural Farmer) and others: To put the land into a protected status under Cooperatively owned Stewardship, by which ownership is redefined to be that of stewardship. To have the economy built from the function of the garden as regenerative collaborations that are of a sharing nature, so sharing-economy and also function as sanctuary for a few on site members and visitors for learning and immersion experiences. That this aspect of the garden be repeatable, as such, a modeling template for regenerative life style.
• Is the property/land associated with this project currently owned privately, publicly or cooperatively? Owned privately
• What is the long-term ownership intention of this property/land: private, public, cooperative, fractional? To be a cooperatively owned trust.
• What is your legal structure? What type of or combination of legal entities will your project use to protect the land and the members? LaLa Gardens is an LLC that includes the land as a direct beneficiary and participant. The aim is to liberate this one acre showcase garden from all financial burdens, past, present, and future, while establishing agency for the land itself, with its stewards serving as legal representatives in human affairs. Our vision for a principle based 'garden-governance' model is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xzhfFLhV1XT6EH1i7BEA9nh_ZrsBuWo7C-7dzkJNzbY/edit?usp=sharing Other models contemplated and possible are sociocracy or holocracy. Also proposed: A membership model that is hands-on immersion experiences with a POAP badge system that leads into micro-equity or other Stewardship models.
• How many acres/hectares is this project? One Acre
• How many acres/hectares is native/untouched/wilderness? Zero/ Though this property is in line with a ditch system that could be restored towards a wild corridor linking urban to the Powder River ecosystem above it. There are 5 lakes within walking distance (man made, irrigation lakes) so could be a model for city/rural policy evolutions.
• How many acres/hectares will remain native/untouched/wilderness? zero on the property, as it is in an existing residential subdivision.
• How many acres/hectares has been restored? the whole acre minus the buildings is being restored and regenerated within a successive management.
• What is the status of your project’s governance structure, or DAO (decentralized autonomous organization)? What support do you need to develop it further? We have not yet established a governance structure. Support in documenting the roles, knowledge, and resources required to successfully steward this one acre would greatly assist in our taking the next step in governance. Training in communications, support in modeling new social contracts, and participation in experiments in village living would be most appreciated as well.
• How are you integrating with the local community in your area? Deeply rooted locally, and through the various 'Trade-Routes' as we are referring to them. Communities that are in active participation and communication in NM, CO, WY, SD, WI, Northern CA and OR.
• How many people does your project need to maintain or run the property, and are there limits to growth or how many people can live on the land? How many people are currently involved in your project? 5 people on site to maintain the property is ideal, with room for 2-3 guests. Currently have 5 residents, 1 primary steward, 1 retired elder, 3 artists in residence. We also host and attend public work day events with our fellow permaculture guild and local farmers. It would make sense that as we grow, we secure additional housing nearby, and at other sites along the trade route, for both worker housing and hospitality. Here are modules we offer and communities we are directly involved with:

Modules and Templates:

• • Poop is Poetry (closing the poop loop)
  • Natural Farming: Immersions(short and long term), Consultations, Products, Spa events, Mini-Festivals and Online Curriculum.
  • Community Cleanse
  • Our Marketplace (feeding 20 families)
    • Communities serviced:
      • Dragonfly Earth Medicine (DemPure Certification)
      • Bloom Network
      • NoCo Permaculture Guild
      • Natural Farming and Permaculture Communities in WY, NM, CO, SD, WI, OR and BC, Canada. (S. Korea and Uganda via Rei Yoon, Hawaii, and elsewhere)
      • Residents of LaLa Gardens including 81 year old mother, 2 artists in residence, local neighbors and an ever increasing diversity of creatures.
      • Communities of Crestone, MOM DHO, SEEDS, Kernel.
      • PermaTours  
      • Rebel Earth, Red Cloud and Re-Member (WY/SD Native Am. founded or servicing)
  • LaLa Gardens LLC: Producing templates and models to be practiced and shared. Repeated and scaled.
  • Potential Web3 alignments: • Bloom Network • Orgo.Earth • Hypha Tools • Harmony • Many within Kernel…
• Have you addressed zoning, building codes, and taxes? If so, how are they being addressed and/or how are they impacting your plans? Yes, we have. I do have a tax lien which is being addressed.
• Have you addressed zoning, building codes, and taxes? https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/my-drive
• What kind of funding are you looking for and what are you looking to do with it? to be discussed.
• What level of experience do you have budgeting for and actualizing a place-based/regenerative development? Do you need support designing plans and / or itemizing costs? Our local permaculture guild is quite skillful and resourceful. We created the following proposal for a festival client: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10nuE2dcRQt6vZENP710G1Mnt_wTzRyGOh7ENhjmZKiA/edit?usp=sharing Always open to feedback and assistance. Generally start small, simple, and with what is in abundance. Would be open to assistance in creating budgets for hospitality, education, traveling events, and the integration of web3 tools into our model.
• What do you think RCA should be looking for when selecting the 12 place-based/regenerative development projects in this first cohort of applicants? A commitment to improving soil quality. Hands on immersion is key. Wellness and personal healing elements as well. Look for those who take joy in being with animals, plants, and the raw elements, while remaining open to hold space for people new to natural living.
• How do you personally want to support the 12+ projects in the alliance's first cohort and at what capacity and commitment level? Would love to contribute all modules including Poop is Poetry for festivals, travel and visit their site, host people in person in our garden, and share our network tools. We are committed to co-create art, music, food, medicine, habitat, house, and home, world wide.

Canada

Valhalla Farms

• Representative Marc Angelo Coppola, Founder and chief storyteller / investor
• Location South shore on Montreal, Canada (20 minutes from downtown)
• 
How is the place-based/regenerative development project(s) you're representing regenerative? This may be a helpful resource: https://www.regenlive.org/what-is-regenerative: We are restoring 88 acres of former GMO corn and soya field to a fully organic permaculture and market gardening farm as well as live in community.
• What values, goals, and focus areas are guiding your place-based regenerative project? Building 150 person village that is dedicated to Freedom Culture: To empower and encourage all individuals to spread their unique gifts to the world. Our goals are simple, how can we provide all the needs of a 150 person community from the land while inviting others to come learn and share their own gifts.
• Is the property/land associated with this project currently owned privately, publicly or cooperatively? Owned privately
• What is the long-term ownership intention of this property/land: private, public, cooperative, fractional? We are cooperative in nature and we will have some fractions that are private property but also some ways where people can invest in the farm or community or businesses in the community by owning their membership or businesses on or based in the farm that they can resell to others if they ever want out. This allows people to fully own their contribution and brand/business within the community which can be anything from rows of garlic, to the yoga studio or event space, etc.
• What is your legal structure? What type of or combination of legal entities will your project use to protect the land and the members?
• How many acres/hectares is this project? Roughly 88 acres
• How many acres/hectares is native/untouched/wilderness? about 40% roughly 35 acres
• How many acres/hectares will remain native/untouched/wilderness? 30% roughly / 25 acres
• How many acres/hectares has been restored? About 25 are under restoration at the moment all could be certified organic at this stage and soil biology is getting insanely good for growing
• What is the status of your project’s governance structure, or DAO (decentralized autonomous organization)? What support do you need to develop it further? We are a Doacracy with 1 member 1 vote systems but also we celebrate entrepreneurship in the community a ton and a lot of autonomy that way. We also have a council of members who help do day to day operations and allow for private property and ownership mixed with communal spaces
• How are you integrating with the local community in your area? A ton - from events to selling of actual produce, to meetings and connection to connection to indigenous community, mens / women's circles and so much more
• How many people does your project need to maintain or run the property, and are there limits to growth or how many people can live on the land? How many people are currently involved in your project? We want to be 150 full members over time. Day to day there are 12 highly involved members but I would say we have 150 people who show up regularly at this stage
• Have you addressed zoning, building codes, and taxes? If so, how are they being addressed and/or how are they impacting your plans? We have by operating as a tradition farm under private / farm ownership we have the cheapest taxes we can get and we are doing really good job of turning people into farmers which helps unlock development and restoration with ease
• Have you addressed zoning, building codes, and taxes? If so, how are they being addressed and/or how are they impacting your plans? roughly $2500 a year right now - yes we cover all land taxes for community from the community - private houses will be responsible for their own and ownership will always have a Right of first refusal to go back to the community at fair market value.
• What kind of funding are you looking for and what are you looking to do with it? Want to do funding to make educational / vlog style content of adopting Web3 and DAO style systems including a crypto that rewards every minute people are on the property at various scales based on geo targeting + Real world asset NFTs and all the drama, challenges and lessons within all of this. I think documentation process would cost about 2k a month over a 12 month period if done extremely well and filmed in high quality on weekly basis + about 12k to film the course and another 15 to 20k for the building the crypto set up and launch process to the community and online although this last piece can scale a lot but that feels doable to me.
• What level of experience do you have budgeting for and actualizing a place-based/regenerative development? Do you need support designing plans and / or itemizing costs? I am a geek at budgeting and marketing! Have models for this all and a team in place for it all. Been at this for what will now be our 10th season at Valhalla and involved in consulting projects all around the globe at this stage. I am primary funder of this community and don't feel I need help doing financial mapping. If anything I would be good at helping others do the same although tokenomics support and the function of how that would work would be important for me to think out and design with crypto experts.
• What do you think RCA should be looking for when selecting the 12 place-based/regenerative development projects in this first cohort of applicants? Ones that will actually succeed - track record and focused on those who have shown they are in motion not just in idea stage + doing real world regeneration of actual land and soil
• How do you personally want to support the 12+ projects in the alliance's first cohort and at what capacity and commitment level? I am happy to an entire online course on this transition with the funding I would get so their are many cohorts that can go through this all - I have done online school launches with my online school Superhero Academy as well and really excited to get our community and experts involved in showing that process and building a course behind it.