Rooted Northwest
A Unique Agrivillage in the Pacific Northwest
Preserving agricultural land on the outskirts of U.S. cities to grow food on small farms using regenerative methods is essential to become ecologically sustainable. In the Pacific Northwest, if rampant development continues, a half million acres of farmland is at risk from urban sprawl. Washington state, where I live, will be hardest hit, with potentially 200,000 acres of farmland paved over. Instead, preserving 100,000 acres for agriculture will save and create over 1700 small farms.*
Rooted Northwest is a planned agrivillage about an hour north of Seattle, Washington, which lies on 240 acres of farmland in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. A local family had farmed the property for over 100 years, and it was purchased, in part, to preserve land that is at risk of being procured by developers. Nearby, there are small towns, and the city of Everett is 25 miles away. On the surrounding country roads, electric cars comfortably share the road with old pickup trucks.
The community has been in the works since 2020 and will break ground on housing this coming spring. The founding three pillars of the community are agriculture, community, and education. Its mission is to live and work together in a way that takes care of each other and future generations.
Current members come from all over the United States; many had landed in the Pacific Northwest after living elsewhere. They include people from abroad – Japan, Argentina, Denmark, and Germany. They are scientists, clinicians, artists, journalists, CEOs, engineers, and musicians. For example, an aerospace engineer is now a full-time farmer. Members have an affinity for and interest in plants, forests, permaculture, gardening, and agroforests. They desire to build a human community that practices both self-reliance and collective teamwork.
The community has built relationships with the Stillaguamish Tribe, the land's original inhabitants who live nearby. Members of the tribe harvested cedar bark on the farm and showed them how they process it for products, from clothes to baskets. Some from the Stillaguamish community came to a farm fest, during which they offered stories and led a planned walk.
The housing in the village will consist primarily of quadplex townhomes with a handful of single-family homes. Built sustainably, the design of the homes and yards promotes autonomy and shared responsibility in a community. The homes extend off a common walkway that leads to the common house. Front porches face everyone, and the small backyards are private. A half acre pond will provide fill-dirt for the houses.
The common house, situated in the center of the village, is the heart of the community. It will have a large kitchen and space to seat the entire community over shared meals. It will include a kid's room, laundry, and outdoor food processing station. In addition to the common house, other hoped-for buildings are a kayak shed, bike barn, and bike shed. Further out, there are plans to build guest and office spaces.
The farmland will provide agricultural opportunities for the community and people from the surrounding area. Farming practices focus on production systems that heal the earth rather than the more conventional methods that damage it. Some community members will be part and full-time farmers on the land. A community garden will look like a small farm, and everyone will be encouraged to tend to it. Most of the farmland will consist of small and medium-sized microenterprises. Some microbusinesses have already begun, including a small you-pick blueberry operation and a plot that cultivates culinary and medicinal herbs with an emphasis on local plants. There are proposals for enterprises such as a flower farm and fermentation of unused farm crops.
Community members can farm the land for free, and others who adhere to permaculture principles can lease the land. The intent isn’t to profit from leaseholders; the community wants to empower small farmers for whom startup costs are prohibitive. The costs for non-member farmers will be pass-through costs for things such as irrigation and equipment maintenance. The goal is to integrate all the farm enterprises into a master plan. For example, a farmer's plot location will depend on their water and soil needs. Permaculture looks for synergies; for example, they might situate a small farm next to a chicken operation so the chickens can clear the ground of unwanted vegetation after the harvest season.
This kind of co-housing project is expensive because of the infrastructural, agricultural, design, and legal costs, as well as the increased cost of construction since the pandemic. Over 60 percent of the cost of the townhome goes to costs other than the housing structures, which makes it as expensive as a two bedroom townhome in nearby Seattle. Because of this, membership will be unaffordable to many interested people. But, once the village building is underway, the community can work to create greater socioeconomic diversity by inviting interested people to farm the land with access to community farm equipment such as a tractor, irrigation hook-up, cold storage, and a wash/pack shed. It will also create educational programs for people outside of its membership.
Participatory governance by all members is foundational in a community like this. A robust, engaged community will ensure its success. All members receive two to four months of training in sociocracy, a proven system that strikes a balance between full consensus and hierarchical decision-making.
Sociocracy uses circles representing different areas – such as agriculture, design, relationship building, finance, and marketing – so that a small group of community members participate in one or more circles. There is also a coordinating circle with a representative member from each circle whose job is to address overlapping domains. The optimal decision-making group size is 5-10 people, where everyone can be heard and updated on issues.
Community members also receive training in nonviolent communication, which underlies all circle work.
I was keenly interested in how the community planners could cluster the housing so that they could live like a village rather than neighbors spread out on larger plots, which is how the unincorporated purchased land was zoned. To preserve agricultural land, it makes more sense for the land to cluster and build in one portion of the land and save the rest for regenerative agriculture, but unfortunately, zoning laws don’t generally align with healthy community practices. To be fair, these community-unfriendly laws protect the area against developers who might, for example, plunk down an apartment complex in the middle of a field while using the rest of the land for forestry, destroying natural resources rather than wisely tending to them.
Fortunately, the county supported this project from the outset. It passed a demonstration project ordinance designed for large acres (100 acres minimum), which allows a village of up to 40 clustered homes so long as the rest of the farm acreage is preserved for agriculture. Rooted Northwest is planning on building two clusters (a total of 70 homes). Even with enthusiastic support, the process has been slow.
I recently visited the site and walked along the parameters with Eric, a member since 2020, who shared with me the community's evolution and plans. It’s impossible not to fall in love with the land and imagine living in a vibrant community like this. Homes for the first phase are still available for anyone interested in living in a vibrant agrivillage. There is a process by which one is involved with the community for a few months, participating in community events before applying to become a member.
Rooted Northwest is a model of how to create a community that builds sustainable relationships with the land and each other while developing ways to invite other small farmers to participate meaningfully. The persistence and dedication of the early members helped navigate the project through the substantial challenges faced when trying to create new, more connected ways of living.