The Ivy Project

Agenda for the 5th

2009-09-04T14:26:00.003-04:00

9 AM meet in Ivy at farm (meet at the Leavell's at 8:40 if you'd like to leave your car for the day and carpool- contact me for directions)

see property in Ivy, hear about the Quality Community Council from Todd, chat with Brian about possible goings on on neighboring plot, farm school, etc. Exchange, share.

10:30 head to Nelson County and meet with realator, check out farms Jeff mentioned

1:30/2 pm head to Shannon Farm (Lunch?)

· Intros

· Background on Ivy Project - VA, Amanda, B

· People United - What is it, who is it - Jeff/Patrick/Aaron/Rachel

· SONG update

· Natural Building updates

· Hopes and challenges, Vision, how this relates to our work

· Informational updates and logistics (Zoning/Division rights in Ivy/Nelson VOP, land sale, money, timeline, bottom line, etc) (VA + Jeff)

· What can we bring to this project?

· Roles/Defining core group

· Next steps

Cville meeting Sept. 5th

2009-08-14T10:53:00.002-04:00

Check back here for meeting agenda details- We'll check out how Ivy is doing, visit some farms in Nelson County, and chat in the afternoon. Rough agenda goes:

Morning- visit sites

Afternoon: Make lunch

Share background, recent history of Ivy Project (VA, Amanda, B)

Hear from Todd about QCC's work and plans for future

Updates on information gathering and potential steps foward (VA and Jeff)

What can individuals bring to project? What roles would people like to play?

Next steps, future plans

2009-06-25T00:18:00.003-04:00

2009-06-19T16:56:00.004-04:00

May 2009: Potatoes just after hilling.

April 2009: Healthy rye, vetch, clover cover crop, just before mowing.

April 2009: Newly emerged potatoes.

March 2009: Newly planted potatoes on a frosty morning.

April 2009: Freshly mowed rye, vetch, and clover cover crop. Potatoes in the background.

QCC At the Ivy Project for MLK Day!

2009-05-03T20:28:00.008-04:00

Volunteers scoop manure for fertilizer

Directions to the Ivy Project

2009-04-02T14:00:00.002-04:00

From Charlottesville

(take 29 south to 64 West)
take exit 114 (IVY) off 64 West, turn left after exit down Dry Bridge Road. After 1.8 miles turn left on Taylors Gap Road and after 2.6 miles turn right on Pagebrook Road and go 700 yards past the red barn and white house on right (stay to left) we're down the driveway in the back field.

From East of Cville
Take 64 east to exit 114 (IVY) and take a right after the exit and follow directions above.

google map of farm is here: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=pagebrook+farm+road+and+taylors+gap+road,+Charlottesville,+Albemarle,+Virginia+22902&sll=37.990244,-78.642583&sspn=0.017757,0.038452&ie=UTF8&ll=37.990819,-78.631961&spn=0.008878,0.019226&t=h&z=16

Corner Cover Crop Expands

2009-01-06T11:41:00.002-05:00

Todd and the QCC have expanded the QCC garden! Cover crops are in, and spring isn't too far away..!

Build Build Build!

2008-08-18T17:24:00.016-04:00

Nearly 15 of us descended onto Charlottesville for the first big Ivy Project building weekend! Most of us had close to zero experience in construction work, but we were artfully guided by our designer and neighbors, Eric and Brian. Half of our beautiful shade structure (room without walls, pavilion, sala) is up! Keep in touch for the next building weekend in the next month or so.

After the structure is up, comes the green roof, the floor, and eventually solar panels, lights, and maybe even walls! Imagine the wonderful ideas a group could have and work through in such a beautiful space.

Fundraising events coming up, and promise to be a blast.

Thank you Eric, Liz, Josh, Amanda, Allyn, Stephanie, Mariela, Todd, Elliott, Shintaro, Jimmy, Andrew, Brian, and Mihr!!!

Pavilion Building

2008-07-30T13:41:00.003-04:00

Eric's plans look great, and we're making real progress getting ready for the weekend of the 16th! Be in touch to organize a ride down or offer fundraising help--!

One sister, many weeds

2008-07-21T22:26:00.003-04:00

Alas! Our seeds weren't good enough quality to germinate! Little of the corn came up, and Todd's great effort to germinate the rest of the seed in boxes off site met little success. With its being so late in the season and all, we'll be looking for a new seed supplier and planting cover crops instead. Better luck next year!

But, keep your schedule open for Ivy Project building days on August 9th and 16th! We'll be doing an Ivy-style barn raising of an open-air, green roof structure! See my attempt to render what it'll look like below. Eric and Liz are doing great things with designs Get in touch with me if you want to come down! (202) 674-0900 Also get in touch if you want to give us money..

Corn Planting!

2008-06-02T10:41:00.003-04:00

A Charlottesville, Fairfax, and DC crew descended on the farm this Saturday. We made hundreds of mounds of dirt and compost and sowed the corn! We picnicked, sweat, and watered the entire garden with buckets from the creek! We also took it as a sign that the project was destined for luck when it rained good and hard for 20 minutes immediately after we finished planting.

Todd will give a shout out when the corn is 4 inches, and then we'll put in the beans, followed by squash! Keep in touch for those dates if you want to come along!

Fence building

2008-05-28T22:05:00.004-04:00

Todd, Andrew, Jimmy, Liz, and I put up our first electric fence! Planting party this coming saturday 11 am!

May update

2008-05-09T11:34:00.009-04:00

Before and After!

Ground is broken! Arnoldo, from the Virginia Justice Center and Mexicans without Borders, Todd from Quality Community Council, Brian, our neighbor, Megan, my housemate, and I spent the day on the 7th plowing up two plots of dirt in the back of the farm. We've got a 100 ft by 40 ft and 40 by 40 ft plot nearly ready to go for planting-! We'll put up a fence over memorial day weekend to keep out cows and deer, and then have a planting party at the end of the month with cville folks from QCC and hopefully some folks from the organized day laborer network up here (TUAVA).

We'll be planting corn, beans, and squash. This is often called the three sisters- the three work together to keep away pests and balance soil nutrients. The corn is a natural pole for beans to climb up.
Todd, Arnoldo, and our trusty plow. Brian plowed and tilled the larger plot with his tractor and potato plow.

Upcoming dates:

May 24th- build a fence and till once more
May 31st- planting party!
Late summer- harvest party!

February update

2008-02-18T22:14:00.002-05:00

The Quality Community Council is taking on Companion Farm in Ivy as their next project. http://cvilleqcc.com/default.aspx
Todd, urban farm manager and I have staked out a beautiful little 1/2 acre plot for the pilot season of melons and pumpkins. We should sign a lease on the property by the end of the month.
I'll be moving to DC for a little while, but will be back and forth and keeping in the loop. Amanda Altman may be down here for a month--! Anyone else would be very welcome, as her lack of a car is a small problem in a town like cville.

-VA

aerial photo of companion farm

2007-12-12T14:16:00.001-05:00

pictures of the farm

2007-11-18T18:57:00.000-05:00

Arnoldo, Karen, and Todd check out Companion Farm for the first time-!

february meeting and other updates

2007-11-04T20:36:00.001-05:00

Hey y'all.

It's probably a good idea to go ahead and pick a weekend for another
gathering to talk about the farm.

Eric suggested the weekend of Feb. 26th. On the other hand, Feb 19th
is a 3-day weekend, which might work better for folks coming from
farther away? Send the list or me your thoughts and I can try to
synthesize them. You can always call me, too- 202 674 0900

Some ideas I and others have had for early action items for the farm
that we could talk about in February (or leading up to february):

Spring garden planting?
Spring or summer natural building workshop on farm?
Local groups' projects on farm
Synthesis of regional/national networking since Oct. '07
thoughts on project and a 501 (c) - non-profit status.

UPDATES:

1. I've been talking with a bunch of y'all about starting early on
with planting as early as spring, and getting other groups involved.
Arnoldo (community organizer with the virginia justice center) and I
visited an organic herb farm in Harrisonburg, VA to check out their
greenhouses to get ideas for winter crops.

2. A few of us have talked about going ahead and putting up a
structure next year, too- either a shed to keep building materials, or
hosting a natural building workshop that would leave us a structure
after the workshop.

3. Diane and I are working with Francisco to organize a long distance
trip for January to a center we're really interested in. So far, we're
talking about Texas, and visiting Colectivo Flatlander
(colectivoflatlander.org) and a farm run by indigenous women out
there, too. Other ideas for a long distance trips? We're also planing
another regional trip for this month. Not sure where yet- ideas?

4. I'm keeping an excel spreadsheet of any organizations/centers/farms
we have visited or want to. you can send me any information of places
you visit or want to, and i'll keep it organized.

5. Charlottesville-based outreach is going well. Folks around here are
interested already in the Feb. meeting. Catholic workers, community
orgs, local churchfolk, etc.

6. I need to figure out with my dad which 50 acres of the farm is the
best for this project's purposes. if anyone has ideas of how to
determine that, land-wise, please let me know. Right now I'm going by
the access road, the pond, seemingly good farming land?

[The Ivy Project] It's a go on the farm!

2007-11-01T00:47:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone.

Quick note before I get to bed-

I met with my dad today to talk about the proposal I'd sent out to the group. Unnecessary details aside, here's the deal with the land:

It's technically under three owners- dad, my brother, and myself. There's nothing in the way of our doing whatever I want with my 3rd (50 acres). Free and clear. So, we can unofficially, for now, divide off 50 acres and proceed.

He suggested using the back 50 acres by the creek and woods, because of access to it by the side road. The road we used to park the cars isn't technically our entrance to the farm. We could think about buying up a teeny bit of land around that access road in back to ensure it's always open to us, or looking into the neighbor's road we used to drive into the farm last month. Anyway. Details.

night night

va

Zoning Issues and Tax Status

2007-10-29T00:04:00.000-04:00

The biggest hurdle we face in developing the Ivy land is the zoning restrictions in Albemarle County Rural Areas:

Albemarle County Code Ch18 Zoning10 Rural Areas.pdf

Section 10.2.1 details the uses that we're allowed by right, such as: one and two family dwellings, farm stands, agriculture, temporary construction, tourist lodging, farmworker housing (up to ten occupants), etc.

Section 10.2.2 details the uses for which we would need a special use permit, among them: community center, civic clubs, private schools, farm sales, etc.

See the definitions in section five at:
Albemarle County Zoning Regs.

At issue here is that 'community organizing and popular education retreat center' is, of course, not on either of these lists. So where do we fit in? Or, more helpfully, how do we avoid the need to get a special use permit, which would be a time-consuming, energy-draining and arduous public ordeal?

One possible loophole is that a project which receives public funding is exempt from special permit. So, for example, if we got a grant from the USDA, or made some sort of agreement with UVA, then we would be exempt.

Another would be to define our project within the criteria for use by right: say a "tourist and farmworker solidarity farm," or something.

Secondary in importance to the zoning issue is the land's tax status:

Right now all 158 acres are under "land use" tax status, which means that it is taxed only $190/year based on the fact that it is used for agriculture. Were some portion of the land to be built about, that portion would fall out of land use status and be taxed at the market rate for developable land. Furthermore, back taxes for the past five years would have to be paid on that portion of the land. This isn't too big a deal, because if we put a building on say 1 acre (that's a pretty big building, even with some non-agricultural landscaping), then only 1 acre falls out of land use. We're talking (I don't have the numbers in front of me), probably something like $5,000 in taxes. However, the property taxes on the building likely will be more than that each year...

Unless, of course, it's owned by a non-profit, it which case the taxes are like zero. Otherwise, it's something like 0.74%, which isn't bad, but we would simply need to have a revenue stream dedicated to pay those taxes every year. And the more structures we build, the more we'll have to pay.

Just to clarify again: the zoning and tax status are two completely separate issues. We cannot change the zoning—that is set by the county. We can change our tax status, based on what we do with the land, and we can decide how much we pay, based on our ownership structure.

Eric

Two ways to post and view

2007-10-22T13:13:00.000-04:00

There are two ways to post to the Ivy Project bloglist, which incorporates the functionality of a blog and a listserv together in one:

On the web:
http://projectivy.blogspot.com/

Or via email
projectivy-owner@googlegroups.com

You will receive another email shortly inviting you to sign up for the blog. The advantage to using email, however, is that one must log in to post directly on the blog. For posting by email, please remember...

Two important rules:

1) Most email programs, when you hit "reply" include in full the message to which you are replying. Please delete that text. Otherwise it will be posted on the blog, which will quickly become unreadable, and resent to everyone in the group.

2) Also, please remove the "Re: [Project Ivy] from the subject line of your email, as that will become the title of your blog post. If it's easier, we can drop the [Project Ivy], but I figured it would be helpful to identify group emails.

You can send images. Just attach them to your email, and they will be posted on the blog and emailed to the group over the list.

If you use a free email service which places texts ads at the bottom of your messages, those ads will be posted to the blog, and emailed to the group. This is presently unavoidable.

If you want to post comments directly on the blog, that's great. Just keep in mind that, unlike the posts themselves, comments will not be emailed to the list—you will need to check in periodically at the blog to read comments.

Peace,

Eric

Charlottesville/Ivy Project: Companion Farm

2007-10-22T12:25:00.000-04:00

What:

Companion Farm in Ivy, Virginia will become a vibrant center, institute and working farm. The project will support, network, and train people and communities working together to solve problems affecting themselves and others. People will come to learn and strategize around big picture goals. Because the farm is so beautiful, it will also provide a space for relaxation and recuperation from burnout. It will be a place for celebration of victories and culture.

Ideally, this project will prove to have long-term relevance, thus requiring its organizers to think in terms of decades as often as they do in days. It must also maintain an appropriate role in the communities and movements with which the project’s staff and supporters works. The components of this vision are subject to drastic altering or elimination depending on assessment of relevance and need for the project in parts or whole.

This vision has five basic parts:

1. Movement retreat center and educational program
2. Working farm and model of sustainability
3. Site to support local and regional organizing and community activism
4. Site for green technology and experimentation
5. Center for celebration and cultural production

Programs and structures that would fulfill the five-part vision draft might include the following:

• Dorms and meeting space for organizational retreats, meetings, and trainings.
• Staff that could provide translation, facilitation, and workshops on a range of skills
• Resource center and library
• Working organic farm to supply meals for visiting organizations, and provide food for local and regional consumers and organizations
• Educational programs on organizing, movement building in the south, sustainable farming, etc. These could be weekend, summer-long, or 6 month/year long educational internships. Programs could target children, youth, or adults.
• A guiding plan for large-scale social and political change.

Major guiding questions:

• Most appropriate first steps in project (based on local/regional need and available resources)
• Best structure, process, and group of people to begin project and move it towards final vision
• Legal limitations of current zoning on land
• Need, cost, and processes of rezoning minimum acreage (2 acres)
• Ownership of land (private or incorporated into a nonprofit)

Possible timeline:

October 2007-February 2008 : Build interest and ownership locally, gauge local and regional interest and need, network nationally (visit similar centers, gauge national need and interest, and develop list of interested folks and possible advisory board), and research legal processes surrounded zoning of land and process of building on farm.

February 2008- Weekend meeting of interested people (local and national). First steps are decided upon.

March/April 2008- Break ground for organic food production (done together with Charlottesville and other Virginia organizations interested in local food and food education. Quality Community Council in Charlottesville, etc.) Build small structure to house two to five people (core group) living part or full time on farm, or live in town and commute to maintain farm. Tools purchased.

March-November 2008 – Core group farms and does fundraising and networking for development of retreat center/institute. Folks not living in Charlottesville assess how they can best contribute (fundraising, traveling, advising, etc.) Trips are made to similar projects and regional organizations of interest. Plumbing, electricity installed on farm.

Winter/Spring 2008-2009 – Project, local/regional/national needs are assessed, funds raised, and additional structures are designed and center/institute programming developed. Organizations begin to use farm for retreats.