Altair 2025 End-of-Year Summary Report

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During 2025, we made substantial progress toward completion, and produced the Design Development drawings for the homes and Common House, and  near-finalization of the site plan. Along with information about our stormwater management plans, landscaping, lighting, solar energy infrastructure, etc. we compiled the documentation into a SALDO submission (see: "What is the thing called SALDO?" ... https://www.altairecovillage.org/blog/2025/8/7/what-is-saldo-part1).

The process for obtaining approvals from East Pikeland Township involves considerable back-and-forth discussions with township representatives and consultants. Toward that end we made our initial presentation to the Planning Commission in May. Several iterations of feedback during the year kept us busy addressing township concerns and incorporating suggested modifications. For example: We responded to the township Traffic Engineer who had requested reconfiguration of our entrance-way; and to the local Fire Chief who encouraged us to change the trail around the buildings back into a fire lane.

Our Common House circle was busy selecting appliances, working on equipment lists, and discussing lighting, finishes and room layouts. Our Membership/Outreach circles (Hospitality, Sociocracy, Care and Counsel) continued to focus on social events, Trailblazer orientations, website updates, and all the other aspects of nurturing and maintaining a healthy network of information and interest.

In regard to marketing:

  • We were a regular presence at the weekly Phoenixville Farmers Market

  • We tabled at the Chester County Sustainability Summit in May and the Greenixville event in September

  • We hosted a monthly series of online public information sessions

  • We ran an outreach solicitation ad in the quarterly Communities magazine

  • Our project was featured in a highly visible article in Lilipoh magazine

Thanks to Dana Waldman, Jonathan DeLone, and others we now have attractive renderings, models, and videos that will greatly enhance our marketing efforts. A 5-minute infomercial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg-Z07aGYbQ) and a 2-minute virtual site walkthrough (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAzr7E-YdK0) are visible on Youtube. The infomercial was featured by our new real estate broker, Iron Valley Real Estate, on their Facebook page.

During the summer, we made a decision to join the national Cohousing Association’s Community Launch program. Each month CohoUS hosts two online “introduction to cohousing” webinars. One, called The Commons, is scheduled for the 10th of each month. Another, on the 20th of each month, is a session specifically about senior cohousing. Additionally, we participate with the Mid-Atlantic Cohousing association. MAC supports and promotes the development of cohousing communities up and down the east coast. One of their activities is an online Q&A session they host several times a year called “The Dr Is In.” They also organized a bus tour of three Cohousing communities in May.

In December, we got some terrific publicity for our project when John Hoskyns-Abrahall interviewed Joel and Margo about Altair. John is host of the “Centering on Peace” podcast sponsored by the Berks Peace Community. The hour-long program originally aired on Berks Community Television December 9 and has since garnered well over a hundred views: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vTV8OiFX9c

We hosted interesting discussions during the second hour of each of our monthly full-circle meetings. Some of the topics included:

  • Aging in place

  • Recycling logistics

  • Strategies and design considerations for minimizing costs

  • Relationship skills in community

  • How to motivate participation

  • Homeowner Association standards

We’re in the process of re-evaluating who should serve as our contractor for the building envelopes. In November, at the site of our construction manager company, C. Raymond Davis, Joel, and Dennis had a chance to hear a presentation given by New Energy Works of Farmington, NY. It was impressive, and they are submitting a bid for this work!

Our next challenges are to submit Homeowners Association documents and to address the KLID ordinance requirement for reports about our fulfillment of the Sustainable SITES Initiative Silver-level-threshold qualification.  We are preparing for what we hope will be our final submission to the Township for site approval.

The work of finding investors continues because, after obtaining approvals, we’ll need a "nest egg" in order to persuade a bank to extend us a construction loan. So, we’ve added an incentive by offering a 7.5% return on investments toward the cost of purchasing a home. Meanwhile, we’re anticipating that non-profit grant and tax credit possibilities will become available after we complete our IRS 1024A application for tax-exempt status. Incentive programs for the energy infrastructure and the horticulture are out there, we just need to reel them in.

2025 will be remembered as a turning point for the Altair EcoVillage project. We started to see the light at the end of the SALDO tunnel. It gave us confidence that approvals and permits will soon be within reach. Construction and move-in can’t be very far behind!