Brothers Ralph and Simon Wallace with plans for the Lotus Eco Village. Photo / David Haxton
Brothers Ralph and Simon Wallace with plans for the Lotus Eco Village. Photo / David Haxton
Construction of a $17m sustainable eco-village tucked away in the foothills of Paraparaumu is under way.
The village is being created at the Lotus Yoga Centre and Retreat site off Ruapehu St.
The Lotus Eco Village will comprise 25 highly efficient weatherboard houses, a community house, new yoga centre, apartment for visitors, extensive village green, vegetable gardens, pond for irrigation and more.
Heavy machinery moves earth.
The village, being spearheaded by Wallace Asset Management, is about making best use of the environment, in a low-impact way, and creating a community that looks out for each other.
Ideas to do something on the site had been brewing for some years but it wasn't until March 2017 when things stepped up a gear.
Landlink and Gil-plans Architecture were engaged as the village idea started to be fleshed out with the yoga centre community and others.
By October 2017 it was decided to go forward with the village and a resource consent was submitted and, after lots of discussion with various parties, the green light was given on September 2018.
A pond which will be used for irrigation.
"The outcome was an improvement [on the original plan] but the process was far too difficult," Wallace Asset Management managing director Simon Wallace said.
Heavy machinery is breaking in parts of the land to enable civil works, while the first allotment of houses are being built off site in a New Plymouth factory.
The first house is expected to be delivered on May 15, while the aim is to have eight houses put onsite each year over three years which enables breathing room and quality control.
The first eight houses have already been sold without a formal sales and marketing campaign.
Prospective residents would need to understand and accept information in the village's info booklet and be "in tune with those principals and guidelines which are not outrageous," Mr Wallace said.
The guidelines were centred around respect for people and the environment.
"Not being bigoted is probably another way of describing it."
A historic homestead on the property, about 109 years old, is earmarked to be relocated to Ōtaki.
"We've got an organisation who is interested in purchasing it."
An historic home in Ruapehu St which is expected to be relocated.
Cathryn Doornekamp, who has been part of the Lotus Yoga Centre and Retreat for many years with her husband Eric, summed up the project.
