Will You Repeat Your Programming As Temporary Caretakers on The Land, Building Your Temporary Dream Life, Or Will You Instead Create Something On Your Land For Eternity?

Legislation -

We are currently preparing a bill to present in the Colorado Legislative session of 2010.  This bill will support demonstration settlements in the state that can qualify for variances from the typical regulations controlling subdivision developments.

If you would like to participate in the legislative change process, please contact us at the links or phone number at the bottom of this page. 

Following is the current version of a legislative bill being proposed for Colorado, and is based on New Mexico Senate Bill 417, passed in 2005 (Through the diligent efforts of Michael Reynolds). If you want to read the New Mexico bill click here.

COLORADO INTELLIGENT DEVELOPMENT TEST SITES PROPOSAL

Intelligent Development shall be defined as: The exploration, testing and demonstrating of human living systems in which at least 80% of the materials needed for daily living will be produced locally. The life-styles of the population living at the test sites will be developed in ways that regenerate and/or maintain the optimal health of all natural resources including food, soil, natural materials, forests, plants, wildlife, and water.

The purpose of this bill is to allow and encourage privately or otherwise funded test site projects within the counties to explore and research cutting edge low impact ways of living without the encumbrances of existing regulations whose basic purpose is aimed at controlling conventional development, rather than encouraging the birth of new concepts. This bill would allow for much needed more sustainable methods of living. It would create a “doorway” through the current limitations of traditional codes to allow discovery of new sustainable living concepts to happen.  

The objective being...  

a.) To allow the counties to approve, at their discretion, various “Intelligent Development Test Sites” to spark evolution beyond the current failing methods of living, through searching for and demonstrating alternative concepts with regard to utilities, bio-fuels, food and building systems, supporting natural cycles and wildlife patterns. 

b.) To support the search for and demonstration of alternative living styles that reduce the depletion of resources with regard to, but not limited to, energy generation and use, land use, construction materials, food growing and living systems, mutually beneficial co-habitation with wildlife and natural life cycles.  

c.) To establish a state approved “doorway” through existing codes for the counties, at their own discretion, to allow individual entities on a ’’test site” property, to successfully pursue beneficial research and development in ways that would be unduly prevented by existing restrictions.   

Whereas;

populations are increasing while resources are decreasing, resulting in a need for developing more sustainable and environmentally appropriate means of supporting human habitat in the State of Colorado.  

Whereas;

sustainable and environmentally appropriate means of supporting human habitat are presently inhibited from happening due to current regulations that control and regulate conventional development.  

Whereas;

Some of the needed solutions for more sustainable development can only be revealed from outside the confines of our existing mechanisms.  

Whereas;

a definition for Intelligent Development is development that provides for its own utilities and life support systems inherently within the boundaries of the test site property thus rendering them independent  or semi-independent of existing unsustainable conventional systems.  

Whereas;

the benefits for the State of Colorado, rural and urban areas, and Colorado people in general are numerous, including:

a.)  Reduced dependence on fossil fuels and the co-generation of renewable energies.

b.)  Income generation and the creation of new green jobs.

c.)   Promotion of innovation, entrepreneurship, green industry, and small business.

d.)  Strengthened local economies through the attraction of new green businesses and eco-tourism.

e.)  Bolstered economic stability and therefore quality of living for residents of host communities and surrounding areas. 

f.)    Increased tax revenues for towns and the State of Colorado from the products and serviced generated by the test sites.

g.)  Decreased dependence on products and services produced outside of the State of Colorado.  Localization rather than globalization.

h.)  Strategic planning critical to evolving sustainability

i.)    Conservation and restoration of vital natural resources for the benefit of Colorado peoples, especially future generations.

j.)    Revitalization of natural systems with earth-friendly appropriate technologies

k.)  Comparative analysis of healthy, non-polluting housing designs, which use eco-friendly building materials.

l.)    Reduced wastes and strategies for achieving zero waste.

m.)  Improved health and well-being of both individuals and communities through beneficial impact on soil, air, water, and restoring natural cycles and wildlife patterns.

n.)  Leadership in the development of new, cutting-edge sustainable growth strategies. 

Whereas;

The aim of a Colorado Intelligent Development Test Site is to discover, test and perfect new approaches and solutions for development including but not limited to...

a.) provision of heating and cooling without fossil fuel

b.) provision of electricity without grid hook ups

c.) provision of water without tapping into aquifers

d.) full containment and treatment of sewage without discharging underground

e.) making use of the vast local resources of natural materials for human dwellings and lifestyle needs, while supporting and maintaining the health of the local ecology.

g.) reducing dependence on machines for daily living and their required infrastructure accommodations.

h.) developing organic fuels for existing machines

i.) Reduction of waste such that all materials used for living can be returned to the earth with beneficial or neutral consequences on the soil, water, natural plant and animal life forms and air.  

Whereas;

This bill does not suggest relaxing of existing codes and regulations on conventional development; rather it suggests “Intelligent Development Test Sites” to be allowed to develop and conduct specifically designated research without blanket conventional regulations, which sometimes, by their very nature, inhibit new and beneficial concepts from emerging.  

Whereas;

In an effort to search, without constraint, for more progressive environmentally appropriate concepts of living, various lands, private or state owned, can be made available and/or designated as “Intelligent Development Test Sites” by the counties. On these designated sites current regulations for conventional development are allowed variation. 

Whereas;

It is recognized that much is learned from apparent failure yet failure is not an option in a conventionally regulated development.  

Whereas;

New automobile designs are tested to the point of failure with real drivers on board; new airplane designs are tested to the point of failure with real pilots on board, bomb designs are tested with real lands designated for destruction; it is time for sustainable and intelligent methods of living to be allowed to be tested with real people in the experimental living circumstance.  

Whereas;

Our current experimental living circumstances of consumption/depletion based economic, food, transportation and energy systems lead to a lose/lose end result. Intelligent living methods, which sustain the necessary resources for a healthy environment deserve the opportunity to be lived and perfected by those consciously experimenting with such a life.  

Whereas;

“Human Scale Experiments” which involve the public by using signed releases can be ethically conducted and allowed to exist, as the participation of people is necessary for various new concepts to be found and evolved.  

Whereas;

These experiments and demonstrations must be such that they invite all sources of funding in order to create the ability to sustain themselves beyond conventional outdated methods of living.  

Whereas;

Intelligent Development Test Sites can be non-profit and/or profit-making enterprises to encourage all designations of lands and funding to be involved in the development of more intelligent, environmentally friendly methods of living. 

Whereas;

If private developers in Colorado are encouraged to create, invent and develop new concepts, Colorado can inspire the country and world, toward the evolution of more appropriate methods of living for the future. 

Whereas;

Presently, there are fewer barriers to profits when operating within the current development codes, therefore private developers are encouraged to produce “more of the same” non-sustainable conventional dwellings and systems.  

Whereas;

New ideas, concepts and inventions are “automatically” barred due to regulations and codes addressing only short term protection of the public rather than long term environmental and human health.  

Whereas;

A set of requirements will be set in place, via this bill, which will allow/invite a private individual to submit their property of any size to be declared an “Intelligent Development Test Site” by the local county.  On this Intelligent Development Test Site, experiments, structures and inventions related to but not limited to energy, housing, water harvesting, sewage treatment, food production, bio-fuel production and reduction of dependence on environmentally depleting machines for daily living, can be tested on a human scale to the point of failure with real people being involved and inhabiting the site after signing releases of liability.   

Whereas;

The initiator of the “Intelligent Development Test Site” can use tours, classes, rentals, leases or other means of causing financial gain to fund the project.  The effort being to level the regulatory and economic playing field between sustainable enterprise and conventional enterprise; the result of this is to bring about as much sustainable development as conventional development, and to seed a future with all sustainable development replacing conventional development as it is becoming increasingly clear that conventional development cannot be maintained much further into the future.  

Whereas;

The state offers the possibility - does not mandate it – for the county to use this optional “doorway” already offered by the state.  The idea here is to allow the addition of a new bill providing this "doorway" to the Intelligent Development of sustainable modern lifestyles. 

Whereas;

The choice of where to allow an Intelligent Development Test Site, exempt from existing zoning regulations within a given county or municipality, is at the option of the county or municipality after the “doorway” is opened by the state through this bill.   

Whereas;

Counties have the option of including language relative to Intelligent Development Test Sites in their comprehensive plans after the “doorway” is opened by the state through this bill. Counties can allow variances to conventional zoning regulation for Intelligent Development Test Sites related to various specific codes including but not limited to; current fire fuel mitigation requirements, property size restrictions, structure and housing limitations, water harvesting, and restrictions limiting explorations specific to the test site.  

Whereas;

Both counties and municipalities have the option of not using or using this “doorway” provided by the state.  

Steps to have an Intelligent Development site Declared:  

1.) Make application to the county planning commission in the form of a special use permit. No further permits required after the special use permit for an “Intelligent Development Test Site” has been granted for a specific piece of property.  

2.) Objectives must be made clear to the county planning commission in realms including, but not limited to, utilities, bio-fuels, water harvesting, food and building systems.   These objectives must be endorsed as being worthy of research by all state agencies whose scope of jurisdiction is related to the said objectives.  (Example - water-harvesting research would be endorsed by the Colorado Environment Department and the State Engineers Office (water commissioners). 

3.) All persons, participants, visitors and inhabitants who enter the site will be required to sign a full and absolute release of liability holding neither county, nor the initiator, nor the landowner, nor the State of Colorado responsible for any perceived economic, health, or other loss of any kind what-so-ever related to their participation in the test project.   

4.) Annual reports will be submitted to the county delineating what is being researched and what is being learned.  

5.) All information learned and discoveries revealed on a Colorado Intelligent Development Test site will be made available to the State of Colorado and the public at large.  

7.) If an “Intelligent Development Test site” is sold as a test site, the new owner must resubmit to the local county planning and zoning commission for “Intelligent Development Test Site” status.  

8.) “Intelligent Development Test sites” can be located in rural, suburban or urban areas in order to increase Intelligent Sustainable Development, environmental and human health throughout the State of Colorado.