I'm hoping this sort of thing catches on in more parts of the country--but a flagship project, the Galisteo Basin Preserve, is an amazing effort, about 20 minutes SE of Santa Fe. It's a rather new land-conservancy group that's got a 12,000 + acre former cattle ranch a bit south of Eldorado (an early solar development out here). Rather than seeing it chopped up with hundreds of Mc Mansions, the conservancy is building an eco-friendly community surrounded by 12,000 acres of open space. Here's a quote from the current Santa Fean Magazine:
"It's a very ambitious undertaking," says Ted Harrison, who spend 18 years at the Trust for Public Land and lauched the conservancy after helping Santa Fe County purchase nearby acreage for preservation. "They threw down the guantlet, to consider the much larger conservation for the Galisteo Basin," he says. The project is being financed through a three-phase development in which bigger, off-the-grid home sites are helping finance a 300-acre high density village (865 residences are planned; 30 percent are designated affordable). Included is a 50,000-square-foot charter school, with Earthworks Institue overseeing stewardship of the property as a whole. The project's already been accepted into the U.S. Green Building Council's pilot program for LEED neighborhoods. Look for the village's lots to go on sale summer 2009. Info: commonwealconservancy.org and galisteobasinpreserve.com"
There are a few dozen premium lots surrounding and above the village which have already been sold. We have a client who has bought a few of these, for anticipated appreciation. After spending a lot of hours out there walking around, I've got to say they are among the best lots I've seen in the whole Santa Fe area and I'm getting very excited about the whole project.