Developments and Announcements

SITES AVAILABLE NOW!

Upcoming Orientations: May 23, June 22, and July 13th and a weekday Monday, May 20th at 2 PM

October 2012

Come to the Portage District Library October 3rd at 6:30PM for a panel discussion on BUILDING SUSTAINABILITY IN OUR COMMUNITY!!! Join us for a discussion with area organizations to discuss projects that help build sustainability within our community. The organizations include:

• Manitou Arbor Ecovillage
  Wild Ones
  Western Michigan University Office for Campus Sustainability
  Kalamazoo Nature Center
  Fair Food Matters
  
  Jack Gesmundo, owner of Hollow Builders, will moderate the panel. Each group will have an information table. No registration is required.
  
  Sustainability in our Community Agenda:
  6:30 - 6:35pm: Welcome
  6:35 – 6:40pm: Brief introduction of the panel
  6:40 - 7:20pm: Each member 10 minutes a piece
  7:20 - 7:30pm: Q & A
  7:30 - 8:00pm: Mingle and Table Talk
  
  Panelists: Harold Glasser, Executive Director for Campus Sustainability; Western Michigan University; Paul Stermer, Director of Fair Food Matters; Bill Rose, President and CEO Kalamazoo Nature Center; Virginia Jones CSJ, Environmental Educator, Coodinator, Manitou Arbpr Ecovillage; Moderator, Jack Gesmundo past president of the Energy Efficient Builders Association and owner of Hawks Hollow Builders.
  
  September 2012
  We'll be at Tillers Harvest Festival on September 16th. Stop by to chat and and pick out your ecovillage site! Many of you have been asking when you can reserve a site!!!
  THE ANSWER IS NOW! :)

July and August 2012
Article: 40 Acre Comstock-Area Site to Become Ecovillage

We are planning some 'Get to Know Us' events out on our beautiful site in July and Aug. Rain location is Ginny's office at Nazareth College. We would love to have you join us! This will be a great time to meet future residents, ask questions, and see the village area, surrounding land, and actual sites! Please call us at 1-800-354-0382 or email us at mail@manitouarbor.org if you are interested in coming so we can give you directions to the Ecovillage site!

June 2012
We are currently in negotiatons with two realtors (Brian Bay or ERA in Kalamazoo and Trisha Cornelius in Grand Rapids) to list and market 10 of our ecovillage sites. We have a listing plan and expect to hope to negotiations finalized mid-June.

A development sign for MAEV is in the works! Soon we'll have a sign erected in front of the ecovillage site so people driving by can see exactly what is planned there and how to contact us. We expect to have the sign in place by July 4th.

May 2012
Listen to us on WMUK! 'Ecovillage in Kalamazoo County nears reality'
Read our May Newsletter

We'll be presenting at Green Drinks Kalamazoo 5:30-7pm at Old Dog Tavern 402 East Kalamazoo Ave, Kalamazoo. Green Drinks is an organic, self-organizing network, with the intent of creating an ongoing community dialogue about local sustainability issues. These gatherings are very simple and unstructured, but provide opportunities for people to make friends, develop new ideas, and learn from the collective knowledge of the group. Stop in for a beverage, good conversation and help shape the local Kalamazoo chapter.

April 2012
So much has been happening that I can't keep up with the News! On April 19th, we announced that SITES ARE NOW AVAILABLE! Read the Press Release here!

Visit us at these upcoming events!
:: April 24 at 8:30pm - Green Drinks and Sustainability Symposium at Kalamazoo College
:: April 28 from 12-4pm - Portage Green-a-thon at Celery Flats

We made the Huffington Post! Read about it here!

We're on Facebook!

March 2012
We've been prepping for our soon-to-come big announcement, finalizing site prices, and updating our list of 300+ prospects. If you've expressed interest in buying a village site and living at MAEV, you'll be hearing from us soon!

February 2012
Wish us luck! If Comstock approves the three (relatively minor) variances to our Planned Unit Development March 8th, we will be very close to being able to ACCEPTING SITE RESERVATIONS!!!! Its been a long time coming, but we're almost there!

LISTEN: to Ginny's Feb 27 Interview about MAEV with NPR's Christina Schockley:
Creating a Place to Live Alongside Nature

January 2012
From our manager, Mike Howell: Our Ecovillage project is at a new milestone. We submitted our Planned Unit Development to Comstock Township last year and our first public hearing on the project is scheduled for Thursday, January 12. After this public hearing there will be a future meeting with the Comstock Township Planning Committee. Ater this our project goes before the Comstock Board for approval. And after this we will be able to do our marketing effort to get people signed on to build. When enough people are signed up, we can go ahead with construction. Thanks to so many for bringing the effort to this point of completion. Let's maintain hope and continue to pray.

August 2011
Mark your calendar now for the Southwest Michigan Harvest Festival! Stop by our booth to chat and find out more about Manitou Arbor Ecovillage! Sunday, September 18, 2011 from 11:30AM to 6:00PM. Music and entertainment, speakers, local food, crafts, exhibitors, and demonstrations. Only $10 per carload, bicycles free!

Map and directions here: http://www.fairfoodmatters.org/harvestfest/map.php

July 2011
The Future Organizing Resident Group (FROG) has been working hard to reduce the buy-in cost into MAEV in order to make it affordable to firm and potential residents. As a result, we found it necessary to scale down our inital plan for the Community Building--with the goal to enlarge and improve the building as our needs dictate and as funds from the sale of lots bring in revenue.

We have also increased lot sizes to assure solar access more easily and in a less complicated way, and we are considering increasing the number of lots.

Our site design is nearly complete. We have completed the Association Bylaws and will be sending them off to our lawyer for review. The Resident's Manual is undergoing its final review.

By December 2011, we anticipate contacting all individuals who have inquired about living in MAEV to update them on our progess and determine their level of interest. Once we have lot prices established, our marketing and advertising campaign will begin in earnest in order to sell the number of lots needed to secure bank financing for the land and infrastructure costs.