The second “living forest” community in B.C. is being developed on a heavily treed 965 acre site south-west of Langford which will over investors or home owners the opportunity to live “like having a home in a provincial park,” according to its developer Doug Makaroff.
Present of Living Forest Communities, Makaroff said his Elkington Forest site backs onto 20,000 acres of Sooke Hill wilderness and will eventually have 77 “small footprint” houses, organic farms and commercial buildings. The development and roadways will take up only 15 per cent of the site, leaving the rest as natural forest he said.
The concept of a sustainable forest community began on Cortez Island four years ago when a group of wealthy buyers led by singer Ann Mortifee purchased 153 acres from forest giant Weyerhauser.
The group formed the not-for-profit Trust for Sustainable Forestry with the aim of creating a sustainable logging play. To pay for the plan the trust earmarked part of the site for development as and eco-village, which was then sold on the open real estate market as Everwoods through the for-profit Living Forest Communities.
This resulted in 10 timber-frame-style houses built for the Everwoods village , each worth at least $550,000.
On the Elkington Forest site in Sooke, Makaroff said a building lot with a “not so big” house of 1450 square feet would be priced starting at $475,000 or about $327 per square foot.
“We also have five model homes from 1200 square feet to 2900 square feet that will be built by Citta Construction,” Custom homes can also be ordered, as long as the design fits the rustic nature of the community. In all, 77 homes are planed in three separate eco-villages. The model homes, use timber-framed construction with wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
“This is not a development for development’s sake, but instead a sustainable community living in harmony with the living forest that surrounds them.” Makaroff continued, “A main objective is the conservation of the forest.”
Investors are being sought through either a limited partnership, with a $35,000 minimum buy in, or a debentures, with a $10,000 minimum purchase.
The project is 45 minutes southwest of Victoria.
