Village Homes Realty
The end of 2024 has seen us achieve a much-anticipated milestone, the amalgamation of the Ecovillage Commons land, which signals to us that we are inching ever closer to bringing the final piece of the Ecovillage masterplan, the Ecovillage Commons Limited (ECL) company, into community ownership.
Community Avocado Orchard on Ecovillage Commons land
After 4 years as a “balance lot” while we subdivided the various strata schemes and private lots of the Ecovillage off, the 39.8066 ha of Ecovillage Commons land has now been identified by Landgate as a single title (Lot 9507) that includes the dams and associated water pumping infrastructure, waste-water irrigation zone, conservation zones and community centre, as indicated in the map below. It is currently being re-zoned on the Augusta Margaret River Shire’s Local Planning Scheme 2 as “Special Use Zone Ecovillage Commons” and “Special use Zone: Ecovillage Wastewater” as per the map below:
The ECL is the not-for-profit company we established to own and manage the Ecovillage Commons land and infrastructure in perpetuity, as well as provide a common structure for the benefit of the Ecovillage community. It’s Members will eventually be all of the strata companies and green title lot owners of the Ecovillage. This membership structure ensures that the ECL can provide dam and wastewater irrigation to the common and non-residential areas of the Ecovillage in perpetuity and without requiring a water license, and gives its Members communal access to and use of the Ecovillage Common Land. For example, Ecovillage residents already swim in the northern “Stingray” dam, and the five stage 1 and 2 cluster companies have taken over the management and harvesting of their allocated rows of the ECL avocado orchard (with 3 trees per lot).
The ECL is currently operated and managed by the developers, Sustainable Settlements Pty Ltd & Perron Developments Pty Ltd, and will be until we have registered the last Witchcliffe Ecovillage strata scheme. It’s anticipated that the last strata scheme to be registered will either be one of the mixed-use sites in the Village Square, or one of the short stay strata schemes, sometime in 2025.
We spent a lot of time deliberating over the structure, role and function of the ECL company and how it would manage its land, infrastructure, resources and conservation zones in the future, and we are excited to see it evolve into its full potential as the Ecovillage grows.
Creating Community Workshop, June 2024
