The Master Plan

The layout

The center: church, green, and commons. The church stands at the heart of the property on a central common of several acres, with the parish hall, school, and young adult house within a short walk. The cemetery lies beside the church, in the oldest arrangement in Christendom.

The first ring: family homesteads. Approximately eighteen parcels of about 10 acres radiate outward from the center — close enough that children walk to church and school, large enough for gardens, animals, workshops, and additional family dwellings.

The outer land: the working farm. The largest share of acreage is kept in agriculture: pasture for meat animals, plots for market vegetables, and land reserved for the orchard and blueberry plantings of later phases.

The phases

Phase 1 — The Land. Purchase of 150–250 acres in a North Idaho county with favorable zoning; initial infrastructure (access, well, power). The critical step — everything depends on it.

Phase 2 — The Church & Farm. Construction of the timber church; first agricultural operations; first families settle.

Phase 3 — The Institutions. School building; young adult ministry house (20 rooms); seminary-level course program begins; cemetery consecrated.

Phase 4 — The Generations. Remaining homesteads settled; orchards and blueberry fields planted; ADUs and 2-acre family subdivisions as children come of age.

The zoning strategy

We are deliberately siting the community in a county whose land-use rules allow what most American zoning forbids: multiple dwellings per parcel (including ADUs of roughly 900 and 1,100 square feet), subdivision down to about 2 acres so a family parcel can be divided among children and grandchildren, and agricultural use as of right.

The architecture

One family of materials, one landscape of forms: log and heavy-timber construction, steep snow-country rooflines, natural finishes. The church — inspired by the great timbered halls of the North — sets the architectural key; the homes, school, and outbuildings harmonize with it. Design guidelines (not micromanagement) will keep the village looking like it grew from one idea, because it did.