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The Miccosukee Land Cooperative (MLC) is a cohousing community (a kind of intentional community). It is located near Tallahassee, in northeastern Leon County, Florida.
The community consists of about 120 households and is governed by a "town council" consisting of representatives from six "neighborhoods" within the community, overseen by a “coordinator” who is elected by a vote of the community. The defining documents of the Miccosukee Land Cooperative include the Articles of Incorporation, [1] Bylaws, [2] and Restrictive Covenants. [3]
The community includes homes owned by residents and a small number of rental homes. Membership in the community was originally limited to people whose names appear on deeds, but now includes long term residents who are not owners. Homesteads range in size from one acre (0.40 ha) to several acres each.
Over 90 acres (36 ha) are maintained as a nature preserve—the Common Land owned collectively by the entire membership. Both private and shared land is heavily restricted to maintain its natural state.
MLC members are drawn together by a desire to live in a "community of friends in the country" (the original description during the initial marketing) where the land and environment are respected and interaction between neighbors is a sought-after experience. After five decades members have come to share a sense of the meaning and practicing of community. (Some children and even grandchildren of the original residents have become MLC member-owners.) All activities, other than assessments for necessities such as taxes and insurance, are voluntary, enabling each person to choose the level of sharing and socializing preferred.
While the community is diverse in age, occupation, and religious practice, many adults are in the prime years of their careers, most working in Tallahassee as teachers and professors, working people, small business owners builders, artists, writers, and including a former county commissioner and former mayor. MLC is a voice in the region on behalf of healthy living, environmentally conscious development and wildlife preservation, and social justice. Activities are scheduled to celebrate life milestones and to support members in times of sickness or tragedy.
The community occupies 344 acres (139 ha). Many residents built their own homes, sometimes extending over years, with cooperation from other community members. Buildings adopt a colorful mish-mash of styles, including geodesic domes originally constructed by the Frese, Brudenell and Wilde families.
Over the years members have volunteered time to create a community center, a volunteer fire department, a swimming pool co-op, and trails through woods and wetlands teeming with flora and fauna.
Shared and individual gardens dot the landscape, and all roads are unpaved—many named after Beatles songs such as "The Long and Winding Road" and "Penny Lane". Much of the maintenance and construction the community requires is done on a volunteer basis. Said one resident, "Many of us carry the vision of more time for shared meals and sitting on the porch shelling peas, gossiping, and singing. In the meantime we walk more separate paths but always give thanks for our land and precious neighbors."
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MLC was initiated in May 1973 by James Clement van Pelt ("Jeff"), Anna Coble van Pelt, and Chris and Carol Headley under the nonprofit umbrella of the Small Change Foundation. The first members moved to the land in June 1974.
It was formed during a recession, tight financing, failing land developments, and in the midst of a "five-hundred-year flood" rain that soaked the area (but revealed where it was safe to build). The land was not yet designed, restrictions on the resale of MLC property effectively prevented speculation and the expectation of profit on resale, lowering expectations. The publicity budget totaled $50.00. However, the community was almost fully subscribed within six weeks and fully financed shortly thereafter. Each prospective member was required to attend a presentation at which the intentional and conservation aspects of the community concept were emphasized. The land was priced initially at about $2,500 per acre on terms of $200 and $35 per month per acre, with a third of the proceeds set aside for community development.
Since the available residential acreage was sold prior to the subdivision was finalized, member preferences drove the planning process, with any conflicts decided on the basis of who joined earliest—although in practice a spirit of compromise prevailed. (Several lots were planned around particular liveoak trees, one of which became a tree house residence for its owner, Laurie Dozier.) One lot is a circular. Roads were planned around those choices. For the planning charrette, members gathered over a spring weekend at the King Helie Planning Group in Orlando, most "camping" overnight in the planning offices.
An ecovillage is a traditional or intentional community with the goal of becoming more socially, culturally, economically, and/or ecologically sustainable. An ecovillage strives to produce the least possible negative impact on the natural environment through intentional physical design and resident behavior choices. It is consciously designed through locally owned, participatory processes to regenerate and restore its social and natural environments. Most range from a population of 50 to 250 individuals, although some are smaller, and traditional ecovillages are often much larger. Larger ecovillages often exist as networks of smaller sub-communities. Some ecovillages have grown through like-minded individuals, families, or other small groups—who are not members, at least at the outset—settling on the ecovillage's periphery and participating de facto in the community.
Cohousing is an intentional community of private homes clustered around shared space. The term originated in Denmark in late 1960s. Each attached or single family home has traditional amenities, including a private kitchen. Shared spaces typically feature a common house, which may include a large kitchen and dining area, laundry, and recreational spaces. Shared outdoor space may include parking, walkways, open space, and gardens. Neighbors also share resources like tools and lawnmowers.
Twin Oaks Community is an ecovillage and intentional community of about one hundred people living on 450 acres (1.8 km2) in Louisa County, Virginia. It is a member of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities. Founded in 1967, it is one of the longest-enduring and largest secular intentional communities in North America. The community's basic values are cooperation, egalitarianism, non-violence, sustainability, and income sharing. About 100 adults and 17 children live in the community.
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A housing cooperative, or housing co-op, is a legal entity, usually a cooperative or a corporation, which owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings; it is one type of housing tenure. Housing cooperatives are a distinctive form of home ownership that have many characteristics that differ from other residential arrangements such as single family home ownership, condominiums and renting.
Stelle is an unincorporated community located in Rogers Township in northern Ford County, Illinois, United States. Its estimated population as of 2013 is 100.
A charrette, often Anglicized to charette or charet and sometimes called a design charrette, is an intense period of design or planning activity.
Sunward Cohousing is an intentional community located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. Sunward's founders were pioneers in bringing the cohousing model to Michigan.
Miccosukee is a small unincorporated community in northeastern Leon County, Florida, United States. It is located at the junction of County Road 59 and County Road 151. Miccosukee was a major center of the Miccosukee tribe, one of the tribes of the developing Seminole nation, during the 18th century.
Welaunee Plantation was a large quail hunting plantation located in central Leon County, Florida, United States established by Udo M. Fleischmann.
The Communities Directory, A Comprehensive Guide to Intentional Community provides listing of intentional communities primarily from North America but also from around the world. The Communities Directory has both an and a print edition, which is published based on data from the website.
Celo Community is a communal settlement in the Western mountains of North Carolina, located in the South Toe River valley of Yancey County. It was founded in 1937 by Arthur Ernest Morgan. Celo is a land trust with its own rules of taxation and land tenure that runs its internal government by consensus. The community does not require its members to accept any religion or ideology, but is based on ideals of cooperation between residents and care for the natural environment. However, its membership is predominantly Quaker. Celo has 40 families living on its 1,200 acres (4.9 km2).
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Coordinates: 30°31′N84°07′W / 30.52°N 84.12°W
Municipalities and communities of Leon County, Florida, United States | ||
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| CDPs | ||
| Unincorporated communities | ||
| Former communities |
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| Plantations |
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| Footnote | ‡This plantation also has portions in an adjacent county. | |