NOBO SERIES

It Takes An Eco-Village

By Amy Brouillette, 6-19-05

In Boulder's newest haunt, NoBo, signs are everywhere this fledgling neighborhood is at last coalescing from a once-jumbled assortment of cool-looking housing into a community de facto. That it's so new adds to the Holiday neighborhood's already surreal, futuristic vibe—with rows of perfectly xeriscaped front lawns, immaculate sidewalks and Pottery Barn front porches and patios. But beneath Holiday’s eerily pleasant, freakishly-ordered surface, an actual human dimension is taking hold, as residents here dig in and get on with the real business at hand: growing a community.

That concept was put into practice last week when Holiday neighborhood planners launched its first outdoor movie night—a double feature of “Wallace & Grommet� and “Easy Rider�—in keeping with the tradition of its namesake (the area was coined after the Holiday Drive In that once stood here). The event drew a horde of Holidayers, bundled in blankets and carrying yoga mats (it's still Boulder after all), out into the neighborhood park (just dirt-and-grass field surrounded by construction at this point) to anoint what planners and residents hope will become a NoBo summertime tradition. (The next showing is tenatively planned for July 14—on tap: Shrek).

Free entertainment aside, community-building is serious stuff (and so very Boulder), requiring resources, money, planning and foresight—but most importantly, a willingness by residents to partake in the one-for-all mindset. Holding up their end are residents of the Wild Sage Cohousing unit, one of several sub-neigborhoods that make up Holiday. A tight-knit crew of locals who fought for years to find their spot after a failed attempt at a similar communal-living project on the Hill, these sustainable-living devotees pooled their funds and built what is now a 34-unit enclave around an impressive common house (more like a grand eco-hotel), with guestrooms, yoga spaces, a library and a fully-equiped chef's kitchen where twice a week residents gather for group meals.

So successful has been this experiment been, Holiday was recently featured in Terrain magazine, which lauded the development as a "world-class" model of sustainable living and new urbanism at it best. No doubt some Holiday residents moved here for the affordable, hip digs—not all want to break bread with their neighbors. Still, the word is out: NoBo is a community on the make.

This is the second installment of an ongoing, occassional series on life in NoBo

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