Posted on 05/27/2023 6:39:45 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Indigo, a new community outside of Houston, is a different type of residential development. Led by farmers, the project will be anchored by a 42-acre working farm.
When Scott Snodgrass and Clayton Garrett started their CSA in 2015, the Houston metro area wasn’t that familiar with the concept. They say their initial 350 CSA members roughly doubled the CSA membership in the area. With their 60 acres of vegetables, they became one of the biggest direct-to-consumer farms in the area—and they relished the opportunity to get more folks connected with their food and teach them about agriculture.
The pair ran that farm for three years as Houston built up around them. Eventually, the outskirts of the city were encroaching on their farm, and the pair ran into bureaucratic issues. They wanted to renovate restrooms for the growing farm team, but they weren’t able to get the right building approvals. If they wanted to improve the road on their property, they were looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars; they weren’t making that even with the success of their CSA.
And then, Hurricane Harvey hit in 2017. While the nearby Brazos River didn’t flood, the guys lost everything. All of their crops. They took it as a sign to rethink their plans and how they were making use of the land. If developments were going up around them left and right, well, they could jump on that bandwagon, too. But they would do it as farmers first, part of the recent trend of farmers rethinking how best to use their land in the face of uncertain economic futures.
That’s when Indigo was born.
“We’re urbanists at heart, as well as the farmers,” says Snodgrass. With that in mind, Snodgrass and Garrett planned out a new community, using their existing land as a base. The goal is to have 750 residential homes, commercial and public areas, even a lake—all centered around a 42-acre working farm.
After a few months of grading and readying the area, they broke ground at Indigo two weeks ago. This summer, the water and sewer lines will get installed, along with the critical infrastructure and paving. Then, in the fall, builders will start on the homes, with the grand opening currently scheduled for early 2024.
Throughout the building process, the pair says the goal is to weave nature and agriculture into the fabric of the neighborhood from the ground up. For example, the lake is also the drainage facility of the community. “We’re investing more than you would into a typical drainage facility, in order to make a wildlife habitat for birds and fish,” says Snodgrass. Investing in the natural benefits of the lake in turn “make it a more engaging amenity for residents who want to go there, for birdwatching, and they can fish in the lake, they can ride in a kayak, instead of it just being a typical retention pond.”
But it’s the 42-acre production farm that will anchor the community. Six acres will be devoted to vegetable production, with community plots and farmer’s markets. The other 36 acres will house livestock, both broiler chickens and hens, and traditional row crops, with some fun additions such as watermelon thrown in. If this sounds like a big undertaking, it is. But, for Garrett, it’s also exciting. “Farmers by nature are stubborn,” he says. “When we started our development journey, we were both stubborn. And we knew we were just going to have to do all of these things to accomplish our vision, to build the community that we’d be proud of.”
While not everyone who lives in the community will necessarily be connected to the farm, residents will have access to the community garden plots and the vegetables produced onsite through a farmer’s market. Snodgrass and Garrett hope that many of the farm’s workers would also choose to live in the community and that people want to participate in community gardening projects.
That means, the guys say, that they want to make the units affordable within the growing Houston real-estate market and provide enough of a community and active neighborhood to entice people. They are looking at building vertically, committing to two- or three-story homes, rather than sprawling bungalows on huge lots. “Then you can condense everyone into a smaller space, and they can then walk to everything they need to get to. And we can reserve huge portions of the property for wildlife habitat and agriculture,” says Snodgrass. It’s a form of conservation development, where city planners start at the center (a main street or a community square) and build out from there, keeping in mind the facilities people will need as the neighborhood grows.
But when they initially tried to explain their vision to financial planners, there was resistance. “Our biggest challenge every step of the way was financial people and city managers saying ‘well, where has this been done before?’ We think we can be that new model,” says Snodgrass. “We’re farmers. We’re focused on the biodiversity within our habitats, interplanting, crop rotations and all those things that really [impact] how soil systems work. And we want to get our soil into healthy cycles. We take the same approach when we look at development, and I think it is shocking to some people.”
Still, Snodgrass says he and Garrett have worked hard to maintain their optimism and ethos throughout the project so far, and they will continue into the future. Instead, with this first agriculture-focused community as a model, they can tweak the formula and keep going. “Indigo will not be our last community.”
"That means, the guys say, that they want to make the units affordable within the growing Houston real-estate market and provide enough of a community and active neighborhood to entice people. They are looking at building vertically, committing to two- or three-story homes, rather than sprawling bungalows on huge lots.
'Then you can condense everyone into a smaller space, and they can then walk to everything they need to get to. And we can reserve huge portions of the property for wildlife habitat and agriculture,' says Snodgrass."
15 min city?
Suppose somebody started one of these centered around a 800 head pig farm...
This always sounds nice.
And then come the people who do not understand that farming is smelly, loud and dusty.
And how are you going to make those homes "handicap accessible"?
What’s a CSA?
Likely ‘Community Supported Agriculture’. Communist dream.
Community Supported Agriculture...officially
Thanks. I don’t know why writers can’t define initials the first time they’re used in a piece.
People buy shares of produce and get what they get. Usually it’s in the form of a weekly box. They also usually have to pay ahead of time which gives the growers working money. It’s a feel good thing for buyers.
Our rural version of an agri-hood here in the Ozarks.
I have 8 acres here and can drive 15 miles to get to the Amish farm store for produce or another farm that has an inspected slaughter facility where I can buy beef/pork/chicken raised and processed on the farm.
We like our hood sprawling and well separated. No subdivision life.
I’m also growing my own tomatoes and pole beans this year and have seen a lot of new veggie gardens around here.
Yep. Good idea. I hope it works for them.
Without me having to pay for it. By me, I mean the taxpayers.
I have a feeling that the roads and infrastructure will be paid for by the taxpayers. But I could be wrong....
No thanks. I’d rather buy as much of what produce I want when I want it. Buying direct from the farm doesn’t work too well around here, anyway, because most of the acreage is in cotton, with some sorghum and alfalfa, none of which I need.
A story.
Wife and I bought a home in town. Lot was only 150 ft wide but 1000 feet deep. Property beside was the same. So we had this big field behind our house. Beautiful. 2nd day we moved in, went downstairs for a cup of coffee. Looked out back and there was a guy plowing up our backyard! Wife had a come apart so I went out back and asked him, basically, WTF? He said I’ve been planting this property for 40 years! Corn, tomatoes, squash, peas, cucumbers, pretty much any kind of produce you could think of.
Turned out it was a great way to not have to mow a 3 acres of backyard. Plus, we got all the vegetables we wanted!
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Wait till they find out that hens often quit laying eggs for a while, and that it takes a year and a half for a calf from birth to steaks. On top of that it’s work!
Where are they going to get hay?
cattle feed?
42 acres, LOL
You have been busy making so many improvements! Everything will pay big dividends in food and easier labor in the future.
I spend a LOT of time ‘thinking’ about making life easier for myself as I grow older. All ‘shortcuts’ are welcome, as far as I’m concerned. :)
There is something to be said about having a neighbor that gardens in a big way.
The next farm over from us (horse farm) is owned by a guy who is ex-Amish & his ‘English’ wife. Summer of 2020, while we were all TRAPPED IN OUR HOMES, I went a little NUTS on the tomatoes - planted 36 of them or some insane number, so I had PLENTY to share.
Enos said to me, ‘Woman, you sure can grow a tomato! These taste as good as the ones my Mom used to grow on our farm!’
He was SO appreciative, and I felt greatly complimented coming from someone that had grown up in that hard-scrabble life. ;)
Everybody’s got a ‘gimmick.’
Usually? It’s a TRAP!
I agree. I do not like the idea of CSAs. The MA Colonies tried the Biblical Pool-our-resources and equal shares for all communism at the founding of the Plymouth colony. The result was that people starved to death. A few people did all the work and everyone else benefited...or not. After a while the workers recognize they are being taken advantage of and stop working. After a couple of disasterous years, the Governor (Bradford I think) assigned families private plots and people worked them and surprise, there was enough food to trade and eat.
Rather than CSA it would be better to provide allotments and let individuals work them. That way people have the benefit of their own labor and choice as to what they grow (or not!)
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