TRACY GAYTON PROPOSES A CAR-FREE, SELF-SUSTAINING VILLAGE IN A RURAL SETTING

ENVISION THIS: Combining the best practices from history and around the world to create a modern, rural micropolis in Central Maine, USA

Our guest, Tracy Gayton of Dover Foxcroft, Maine, envisions The Piscataquis Village Project as such a settlement “evolving organically and growing incrementally” and, so far, he has raised over 1/5 of the $2 million required funds to get it started.

The Piscataquis Village Project “was founded to establish the first compact, car free village in the United States...Though our project will not construct buildings, we will draft the street plan and simple design code, based on the best of traditional practices, that will guide the build-out of the site. Attached, durable and fire resistant buildings, no taller than a walkable height, will front on narrow streets, with continuous arcaded sidewalks offering shelter for the elderly and mobility challenged. Buildings will be arranged to create plazas, serving as markets and democratic meeting places for all classes of people, and will surround interior courtyards for more private space. All destinations will be within convenient walking distance, with vehicles garaged at the village perimeter. 375 acres of garden space, sufficiently sized for each household to raise a significant amount of food, will encompass the developed zone…The green belt, other than the area designated for vehicle parking, would also be a zone for allotment gardens, small scale agriculture, playing fields, outdoor recreation and park-like green space.

Is the Piscataquis Village Project a promising way to combine the resilient, equitable, and Earth-friendly qualities essential for a sustainable future with the best of rural and village lifestyles of the past?  Let’s question and listen to its planner, Tracy Gayton, to find out.