Green Bridge Farm: modern housing development meets hippy commune

photos credited to: Karolyn O'cull

Green Bridge Farm: modern housing development meets hippy commune

Imagine a neighborhood where the surrounding woodlands are largely left undisturbed, wildlife abounds and peace and quiet is the norm. Picture a community where each house has its own personality, neighbors come together to plant, pull weeds and harvest from a common garden, and kids can run around with free-range chickens and pick fresh fruit from the orchard.

Is this what comes to mind when you think of a housing development? Probably not. Most of us would think of row upon row of large, cookie-cutter houses with immaculate grass lawns without a blade out of place and HOA rules that demand conformity to conventional aesthetics.

But Michael Maddox had something radically different in mind when he set about developing his subdivision, Green Bridge Farm, an intentional community aimed at sustainable living. Maddox, a self-declared former hippy, envisioned a space where he and a few of his friends could build their homes and share a garden, creating a smaller carbon footprint as a community than any of them could achieve on their own.

The timing for the venture was unfortunate, coinciding with the economic downturn and housing crisis of 2009. When his friends got spooked and backed out, Maddox had to make a new plan. It’s nearly ten years later, but Maddox’s vision of a multi-family community is becoming a reality.

Drawing on his experience as a landscape designer, Maddox laid out the acreage to resemble the old homestead models. The site includes private and community spaces comprised of two large gardens, a fruit orchard, pecan trees and a pond with surrounding wooded land. Privacy for the individual homes is protected by the trees and natural landscape left in place.

Michael Maddox

Homeowners are encouraged to make the most energy-efficient choices possible within their own budgets, and each house is decidedly unique.

Maddox designed and built his own 1,200 square foot wood home with high ceilings and a small footprint. The site also includes a log cabin, a prefab iHome and a hot pink and purple tiny house that was featured on HGTV®. Clearly, conformity is not the guiding principle here.

“I was never striving for total self-sufficiency. I find that a lot of people kind of become victims of these concepts … it becomes important for people to have a label and then they conform to the label rather than allowing things outside the lines.”

“The design was a homestead for a large family and the idea that we would be as self-reliant as practical, not necessarily as possible. Because I’m not going to grow olive trees so I can have olive oil or raise dairy cows so I can have butter. I don’t mind buying those things.”

But perhaps the key element to the neighborhood is the farm component of Green Bridge Farm. Though Maddox is currently the only farmer in residence, several of the families that are in the process of building their homes have expressed a desire tohelp with the work and share in the bounty.

“Right now, I’m basically the only one who works on the farm. The people who are moving in … there’s two young couples and their young children … they’ve all expressed an interest in working.The two younger couples plan to help and get their kids involved. I think maybe this time next year when all the houses are built and people have moved in, it could be that all the food stays here on the farm and just feeds the residents, which is what I intended,” Maddox explained.

Maddox admits the project has been more experiment than grand design, but he hopes the final outcome will provide an example that others can replicate. “This is my push back, this is my radical offering to America. Something a little bit different, but very much like what used to be. Kind of a throwback to another era but with modern amenities.”

“I feel like I’ve pulled it off. It was pretty tough there after the recession, but I’ve managed to hold on and it’s turned out pretty good … I’ve always been kind of a mover and a shaker and lead by example. I’d like to see other people try to do things like this. Maybe not on this scale, maybe three families together or five. Or maybe even a hundred.”

“But it was real important that I try to pull this off,” Maddox said, “because I wanted other people to do it too. And it’s changing all the time. Like I tell people, farm is a verb not a noun. The end result could be something I haven’t foreseen, who knows. So, I’m along for the ride too.”