Value is derived from
VALUE$ derived from
Beliefs

The Village on Sewanee Creek is an “Intentional Community”.  That means Villagers are here because they choose to live by common values and goals     … sometimes described as “like-minded”.  It’s an uncommon idea in residential Real Estate, but I believe that the underlying property VALUE in the Village comes mostly from the pleasure of living in harmony with people who share positive, traditional VALUE$.  Our lives are enhanced by the good people we choose to surround ourselves with.  It’s a rare and valuable lifestyle that takes time and effort to curate.
Think Mayberry in the Mountains or Little House on the Plateau.

As founder, I work to build a community that I want to live in. My family and I live here too.

This page clarifies our core values and guides interpretation of our governance principles found in the Village Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions developed by owner/residents of the Village.

Harmony with Nature and People

The essence of harmony is balance, trust, mutual respect and caring.

We believe that people who value, love and respect God and His creations (all aspects of nature) also tend to love and respect their neighbors. Start with the right people and the rest comes naturally.

Within the wide range of “intentional communities“, that include Eco-Villages, we are not a commune. Apart from the shared common areas, each villager independently owns their home and property and strives for self-sufficiency. Responsible property ownership is fundamental to one of our other values, freedom.  Strong, independent people and families are the basis for a strong, sharing community.

We are responsible stewards of the land, not extremists. We love nature, but we avoid extreme perspectives that value nature at the expense of people and can lead to conflict.

Preservation of Natural Beauty includes naturally occurring vegetation and wildlife. It places limitations on all forms of pollution including chemical, light, sound, trash, etc.

The people who have lived on this rural plateau for generations value happy times spent with dear friends and family immersed in nature (usually in “the gulf”). We think they have it right and we want to live in harmony with those values as well as with those people. We have much to learn from their long-forgotten skills and simple values.We hope to bless their lives in return.  Hence, we have intentionally opted not to create a closed, gated community.

We believe that enlightened love of neighbors will also deliver the highest appreciation of property values for oneself. A community of people who do unto others as they would have done unto themselves is a little piece of heaven.  Blend that lifestyle with some of the most beautiful land on earth and well, there you have it.  Without coercion, people naturally take care about things like how the color of their house blends into the natural landscape and doesn’t block another’s view. They naturally embrace the affable southern porch culture that is built one trusting relationship at a time.

Faith

We don’t care much about the doctrinal content of your faith.  We care a lot about how your faith is expressed in your character.  In a phrase, that boils down to living the Golden Rule. According to Jesus, it’s a subset of the first commandment, loving God.  Common to most faiths, but not that easy to live.  While we are open to all denominations, we prefer people who are committed to constant improvement in their ability to love and share as shown by disciplined commitment to whatever religious tradition they choose.

Freedom

A conscious choice in favor of any one value almost always has an offsetting effect on others, thereby limiting certain rights in order to favor values deemed more important. One of our values is freedom, so we are careful about imposing restrictions unless they are supported by higher core values. These choices define the character of the community and the kinds of people who choose to live here.  We prefer to govern ourselves by principles and values rather than complex and onerous rules. The Village is rural.  Each family has over an acre of ground, some up to ten acres.  With that kind of space, we aren’t much concerned about how often neighbors cut their lawn.
Be king of your castle.

Creativity & Work

A famous psychologist, Abraham Maslow, said that humanity has a consistent hierarchy of needs, often expressed as a pyramid.  At the bottom are lower needs essential for survival like food, water, shelter and safety.  At the top is “self-actualization”.  We work to fulfill all the levels.  Humanity shares the need to express our creativity in many ways – the arts, music, painting, sculpture, architecture, construction, music and theater, to name a few. As literal offsprings of God, the great creator, it’s not surprising that we would inherit some of His character traits and needs. Creativity, as a value, follows closely behind Freedom. We seek to create an environment where the freedom to express one’s creativity is valued.and protected.  The signature feature of the Village is the Village Commons, a park with gazebos and fire pits built around an Amphitheater for our community-created performing arts.  As a musician, this was a high priority for me.  Many of us see ourselves as “Makers”.  We participate in designing and building our homes.  We work together in the “Village Project” each week to build or improve something on each other’s homesteads.  Many “Active Adult Communities” cater to retiring baby- boomers with leisure activities.  Play is certainly an important part of a fulfilling life, but a constant diet of play is like a sugar-only diet.  Too many Americans suffer from diabetes, both physical and mental.  Our greatest fulfillment comes from creative work.  People whose values are centered around the golden rule enjoy serving others.  That usually involves work.  We thrive on it.

Community

The Village is designed to promote active, caring social interaction between its residents, visitors and the indigenous residents of the larger mountain community. Amenities such as the amphitheater are designed to promote a high degree of informal as well as organized socialization, from education to entertainment to play, to cooperative, productive work projects. Check the BLOG for a description.  The covenants suggest a covered porch on each dwelling, intended to promote a sense of community at a personal and family level. A bias against privacy fences in general also expresses this value. Family values are actively promoted within this community and are expressed in our choices of entertainment.

There is no minimum  or maximum house size.  We hope each home will be a creative expression of the owner’s commitment to intelligent design, attention to detail, quality and conservation. We believe the human content of the home is more important than the shell, so ostentatious displays of wealth aren’t a feature here.  We believe in a sense of economy as expressed in Thoreau’s Walden Pond. That Said, houses in the Village range from Tiny to over 5,500 square feet.

Through common values, design and management of the amenities and the Village Covenants, we hope to attract residents who value, consciously care for and enjoy both people and nature and who intend to actively contribute to the quality of the community in which we live.