History
Columbia Ecovillage was the brainchild of Joe and Pam Leitch. In 2004 they bought the farmhouse property located just north of a 1970,s apartment complex on Killingsworth and thought it would be a great idea to someday combine both properties for a cohousing community. They re-established the Portland Permaculture Institute on the farmhouse property and began to work the land. Slowly they developed a relationship with the owners of the apartment complex. In early 2007 Ole and Maitri Ersson encouraged the Leitches to meet with the owners of the apartment complex to explore a purchase agreement. Ole and Maitri formed a partnership with Joe and Pam and established the first Visions and Values and met with the apartment owners that lead to a purchase agreement. Although Ole and Maitri did not end up being part of the final team they were instrumental in the forming of Columbia Ecovillage.
After researching other cohousing communities, Pam and Joe decided to use the developer driven model. That meant that they would take the majority of the financial responsibility and risk for the whole project. They partnered with Rick Gustafson and his brother Ron local Portland developers. This team made most of the design and construction decisions and sold the completed units to future members of the Ecovillage.
An initial group of interested people met on September 8, 2007. The group debated whether the name would be Columbian (the name of the existing apartments) or Columbia Ecovillage, or something else altogether. They also edited the original vision and values. That group began having weekly meetings where future neighbors became friends, polices for the village were drafted and input was given to the developers.
The first public meeting was held on November 4, 2007 at Kennedy School. In this meeting and in meetings that followed there was an overview of the project with a skit by members and a question and answer period. During the following year the group held monthly gatherings there, as well as info-socials at various restaurants around town. Through these gatherings, word of mouth, flyers and other network communication, the interest in the Columbia Ecovillage community began to grow.
Just under a year later, in July 2008, the growing community held a groundbreaking ceremony and the rehabilitation of the apartment buildings began. By that time most of the units were spoken for. The first Villagerrs began moving in February 2009.
History