Our Community
Overview
Community Features
Meditation Hall
Community Amenities Timeline
Sustainable Agriculture
Homes
COVENANTS, CONDITIONS AND RESTRICTIONS
Overview
We are proud to present our preliminary site plan. Click the image above for a larger view.
The Cypress Villages development is a professionally planned sustainable community featuring Maharishi Sthapatya Veda (MSV) homes surrounded by:
- permaculture landscaping,
- organic agriculture fields,
- greenhouses,
- parks,
- walking trails, and
- retail shops.
Cypress Villages is designed to be an innovative community with paved streets and sidewalks which incorporates various community amenities including an amphitheater and meditation hall.
Designed specifically as a LEED (green) and ENERGY STAR development, houses are built to high performance standards in lighting, heating and cooling, water, and air quality. Built with sustainable materials, houses feature solar and wind generated utilities offering both efficiency and low maintenance:
- Houses are designed to perform 60% more efficiently than established building code regulations.
- High efficiency Geothermal heat pump for heating and cooling adds 60% savings compared to code.
Community Features
Renewable Energy
Either the sun is shining or the wind is blowing in Jefferson County, Iowa. Several area communities have operated for years on the sun and wind energy. The goal for CV is a net zero energy community – where the total energy used equals the energy produced. Wind turbines, photovoltaic and solar hot water panels will contribute to this goal.
Responsible Water Use
We are working with civil engineers to develop environmentally responsible storm water management and waste treatment systems as well as opportunities to utilize gray water and rain water. Low flow fixtures and faucets are standard features in our homes.
Thoughtful Material Selection
Non-toxic, natural building materials reduce indoor pollutants, require less maintenance, and provide a longer life cycle that will ensure that our land stays fertile, our water and air stays clean, and each of us stays healthy.
Community Connections
As an extension of each home, the community will require less energy by providing local products and services, reducing transportation costs:
- Working with local businesses and using local materials
- On-site organic greenhouses, permaculture landscaping, orchards and crops
- Organic agriculture methods
- Employment, entertainment, retail and educational facilities located close to home
- Planting of trees to provide sound reduction, privacy and energy conservation
- Consolidation of living area to reduce landscaping time and energy consumption, and in turn, providing more land for green space and agriculture
- Areas we encourage for commercial and retail development are coffee shops, organic and vegetarian restaurants, organic grocery retailer and/or co-operative, green building supply with hardware-home and garden departments, fuel services (gasoline, bio-diesel and electric recharging), and motel/hotel. These services will be located in a specified location fronting Airport Road.
Entrepreneurs investing in multi-family housing development will have specific locations to choose from within the residential housing development.
In addition to clean living here at Cypress Villages, we will also have our own technicians administering broadband Internet and Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone services allowing you to stay in touch with loved ones and your work while still living in a quiet and green community. With these services you will be able to enjoy all the comforts that you are accustomed to:
- Browsing web pages at broadband speed
- Email and instant messaging to stay connected
- Crystal clear calls made to loved ones and business contacts
- On demand video and music content
Meditation Hall
Our meditation hall will provide space for daily meditation as well as double as a storm shelter for Cypress Villages residents. 
SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
Supporting viable rural communities with fair treatment of all involved in the food system, from farm workers to consumers, the sustainable agriculture movement benefits rather than harms the natural environment and maintains basic natural resources such as healthy soil, clean water, and clean air. There are many paths to sustainability. Some of the approaches Iowa farmers are working with include better use of pasture for raising livestock, reducing or eliminating the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, and direct marketing of specialty products to consumers.
A Cypress Villages goal is for its agricultural production to exceed the production of the land prior to development.
OVER 30 ACRES OF CV GRAIN FIELDS MOVING FROM CONVENTIONAL TO ORGANIC
On the agriculture portion of the land, we will phase any non-organically certified land into certified organic land in a standard 3-year time frame. Agriculture income for what is called Transitional Crops (3-year process to certify organic) will soon be replaced by Ag income of organic crops. We intend to utilize Dr. Sam James for input into the Ag portion of our business model.
AMES, Iowa -- Iowa State University (ISU) economists offer some answers to the question, “Does it pay locally to help farmers convert their operations from conventional to organic farming?” Using as their model the unique Woodbury County plan to provide tax abatements for producers who transition from conventional to organic farming, the newly released study shows that the potential regional economic impact of organic crop production exceeds that of conventional crop production.
In work funded by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, the ISU economics department and ISU Extension farm management office, assess the potential region-wide economic impact of this major switch in production practices. They employ economic models to gauge whether the investment of public tax monies to spur the conversion will yield long-term economic benefits for the area’s population.
The project, “Determining the methods for measuring the economic and fiscal impacts associated with organic crop conversion in Iowa,” affirms existing ISU research, which demonstrates that operators who choose organic methods will receive greater economic returns than those who opt for conventional practices. Next, the economic impact of that difference was measured considering all linkages with the regional economy. The study found that the economic impacts of the organic alternative were substantially larger than the conventional configuration, a significant observation for those engaged in rural and regional economic development.
OVER 42 ACRES OF CV OPEN SPACE PLANTED IN PERMACULTURE
Bill Mollison, an Australian ecologist, and one of his students, David Holmgren, coined the word “permaculture” in 1978. It is a contraction of "permanent agriculture" or "permanent culture." Permaculture is a set of design principles that can be applied to any situation, a garden, a farm, a community, and a new housing estate. The principles aim at creating a system that is as close to self sufficient as possible. Sustainability is the keyword.
A central theme in permaculture is the design of ecological landscapes of multi-use plants that produce food. Energy-efficient buildings, wastewater treatment, recycling, and land stewardship in general are other important components of permaculture. The focus is not on these elements themselves, but rather on the relationships created among them by the way we place them in the landscape. Mimicking patterns found in nature further enhances this synergy. More recently, permaculture has expanded its purview to include economic and social structures that support the evolution and development of more permanent communities, such as co-housing projects and eco-villages. As such, permaculture design concepts are applicable to urban as well as rural settings, and are appropriate for single households as well as whole farms and villages.
Important Characteristics of Permaculture
Permaculture is one of the most holistic, integrated systems analysis and design methodologies found in the world.
Permaculture incorporates sustainable agriculture practices and land management techniques and strategies from around the world. Permaculture is a bridge between traditional cultures and emergent earth-tuned cultures.
Permaculture promotes organic agriculture that does not use pesticides to pollute the environment.
Permaculture design is site specific, client specific, and culture specific.
The Practical Application of Permaculture
Ecological methods of production for any specific crop or farming system are central to permaculture as well as to sustainable agriculture in general. Standard organic farming and gardening techniques utilizing cover crops, green manures, crop rotation, and mulches are emphasized. Gardening and recycling methods common to permaculture include edible landscaping, keyhole gardening, companion planting, trellising, sheet mulching, solar greenhouses, and spiral herb gardens.
Since permaculture is not a production system, per se, but rather a land use and community planning philosophy, it is not limited to a specific method of production. Furthermore, as permaculture principles may be adapted to farms or villages worldwide, it is site specific and therefore amenable to locally adapted techniques of production.
Permaculture is not limited to plant and animal agriculture, but also includes community planning and development, use of appropriate technologies (coupled with an adjustment of life-style), and adoption of concepts and philosophies that are both earth-based and people-centered, such as bio-regionalism. Many of the appropriate technologies advocated by permaculturists are solar and wind power; water collection, management, and re-use systems, rain catchments; and constructed wetlands.
Homes
Energy Efficiency
Homes will be built to high performance energy standards incorporating:
- Geothermal heating and air conditioning systems
- Solid construction techniques and ample insulation to improve comfort and energy efficiency
- ENERGY STAR rated appliances
- Whole house heat exchanger ventilation system
- Minimal use of concrete; a leading source of CO2 in the world.
- Natural, non-toxic building materials
For full home specifications please visit the Our Homes page.
COVENANTS, CONDITIONS AND RESTRICTIONS
Please click here to view a PDF of our CC&R's