They set up traffic cones on an empty parking lot to show the
fire department that emergency equipment could easily navigate
the narrow streets, even past parked cars. Village Homes'
streets--with an average width of 23 ft., compared with up to 36
ft. on normal streets--would not only cost the city less to
build and maintain but would give off less heat in the summer.
They convinced the police department that putting sidewalks
behind the homes rather than in front and eliminating
throughways would make residents safer, and Village Homes' low
crime rate has proved the point.
They promised city officials that agricultural runoff wouldn't
be a problem because they would use environmentally safe growing
methods. And to those who objected to natural drainage, Corbett
argued that cities had been built around that concept for
centuries before modern techniques came in. As for financing,
Corbett finally got help from a small local bank by not telling
it about all the ecology business. The only major idea that had
to be dropped was a plan to recycle sewage through underground
pipes to nourish the orchards. The public health department
refused to bend.
After three years of delays, the Corbetts got the go-ahead, and
the first of 240 homes began going up. In the heart of the
development, a day-care center and a small suite of offices were
built. Nearby, a solar-heated pool and playground looked out on
a vineyard. (A restaurant would come later.) The homes came in
all types and sizes: traditional, modern, even four with sod
roofs. There was virtually no restriction on style, but all had
to use solar heating. And there was one iron commandment: Thou
shalt not block thy neighbor's sun.
Gardens soon sprouted, and so did kids. Families flocked to the
development, drawn by the community spirit, open spaces and the
bike paths that connected them to downtown Davis. "It really is
a village," says Kit Bruner, 51, who moved in 15 years ago with
her husband and two children. "There were eight 8-year-old boys
in a two-block radius. You knew the parents of the child your
child was playing with."
The residents became as diverse as the bounty of their vegetable
patches. A bond salesman who had never gardened before started
raising onions, broccoli, cauliflower, parsley, snow peas, chard
and kale. Near him is a physics professor who once specialized
in nuclear energy and now prefers the solar kind. There are
schoolteachers and state-government employees (Sacramento is 15
miles away), young couples and retirees. Although the houses
grew as large as 3,000 sq. ft., Corbett built several
1,000-sq.-ft. units for low-income residents.
Village Homes' success has attracted admirers from near and far.
Architects and landscape-architecture students still troop
through regularly, and Japanese tourists are frequent visitors.
"They're always trying to find what the latest thing in the
world is, so they can capitalize on it," says Corbett with a
laugh. The late French President Francois Mitterrand and former
First Lady Rosalyn Carter have taken tours.
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