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Agriburbia comes to North Carolina

Forward-thinking (or is it backward-thinking?) residential developers, builders and architects see the writing on the wall for traditional, mid-20th century-style suburban subdivisions and they are coming up with some innovative alternatives.

One such alternative is "Agriburbia," a trademarked term for development-supported agriculture that started in Colorado and now includes a project in Granite Quarry in Rowan County, about an hour south of Greensboro. 

I spoke today with Paul Newton, a planner with The TSR Group that developed the concept, to learn more about this mixed-use agricultural development, called The Farmstead. 

What's interesting about this project is that the development centers around a working biointensive farm. The Farmstead will include 280 single-family and multi-family homes, as well as commercial space and a farmers market (which should open by spring) on 126 acres. Newton said a professional farmer will soon be hired to grow produce that will be sold on site as well as to area restaurants. The farmer and developer will share the revenue, some of which will go to the homeowners association.

Homeowners will also have the option of growing food privately or hiring a farmer to sharecrop in their backyards. The Farmstead will feature green homes and education about food preservation, etc. 

"The local food ideas is a solution to making all new development and neighborhoods more sustainable," Newton said.

 I also found interesting the fact that the Colorado firm was brought in about two years into the development as a way to overcome the economic slump and distinguish the Granite Quarry subdivision from others. In other words, the recession created an opening for the developers to try and market something new.

"The whole economic situation has stalled out pretty much all development," Newton said. "It's a big problem. Around the Charlotte area there's around 50,000 acres of entitled land that is not being developed. It's becoming a city issue for Charlotte because that's where they collect a lot of revenue."

I told Newton that some suburban sprawl critics would celebrate the slowdown in building, to which Newton responded that development will continue to happen in an economic growth-dependent society.

"If you buy into that model, and that's the predominant American economic model, then there's no question that new development, new growth is going to happen," he said. "We're of the mind that it should be sustainable. It shouldn't lean so heavily on natural resources."

The Agriburbia concept also addresses two challenges, Newton said. One, It enables the developer to pay down his loan without having to rush the building and selling process. It also provides a new model for financing agriculture in an era of expensive land prices. The TSR Group is not alone in this thinking. Earthwise in Wake Forest is working on a similar concept.

"We're creating the infrastructure for the next generation of farming," Newton said.

This is the kind of synergy we need to see more of (I'm waiting to see this kind of thing in the rental sector). For example, Newton is working with the Rowan County Cooperative Extension to recruit vendors for the farmers market, and he attended the Farm to Fork summit, which was part of a statewide initiative to promote local food economies. 

Too bad we didn't see more of this 10 years ago. Riding out the recession will be no small challenge.