One of the parcels being considered for an ecovillage in Boston’s Jamaica Plain is within walking distance of that neighborhood’s Centre Street (above).

A firm that was responsible for managing the development of a 30-unit co-housing development in Jamaica Plain – the first such project to be built in Boston – wants to create an environmentally friendly, mixed-use village of homes in the same neighborhood.

The team, along with a group of local residents, has started meeting to create the city’s first urban ecovillage. Their current plan is to build at least 30 units, along with about 10,000 square feet of commercial space, near public transportation and near shops and commerce that utilizes technologies which conserve water and energy consumption as well as green building materials.

The efforts come a little more than a year after a co-housing development – a mixed-income and diverse community that residents helped to design and operate and where residents have access to a common house – was completed in Jamaica Plain.

EcoDevelopments, a real estate consulting and development firm that managed the development of Jamaica Plain Co-Housing, is trying to acquire a site to create the new ecovillage.

“We see this as the next-generation offshoot of JP Co-Housing,” said Stewart Mayer, one of the principals of EcoDevelopments, who noted that Jamaica Plain was selected for the ecovillage because of its diversity and its “openness to a non-traditional development product.”

About three potential sites for the village have been identified. Patricia Lautner, who lives in Jamaica Plain’s co-housing and is working with EcoDevelopments to create the ecovillage, said the group is focusing on a parcel at the corner Boylston and Amory streets. The site, which totals about an acre, currently includes abandoned manufacturing buildings.

Lautner said the site is an ideal location because it is close to the Stony Brook station on the MBTA’s Orange Line as well as a bike and pedestrian trail that runs through the Southwest Corridor Park in Jamaica Plain. It is also within walking distance to Jamaica Plain’s Centre Street, which features shops, restaurants, banks, churches and schools.

“We’ve identified more than one site, but that’s the site that makes more sense,” said Lautner.

Lautner said more than a single parcel could be combined to create a village featuring more homes, but right now the plan is to create a community of 30 residential units that would be run by a condominium association.

A meeting organized in mid-September to discuss the ecovillage drew about 50 residents from Jamaica Plain and surrounding communities, and most understood the concept of environmentally friendly “green” development, according to Lautner. About 20 people indicated they were going to attend a second meeting, scheduled for last Friday, to discuss the role of the developer and the role of the resident group in the creation of the ecovillage.

There are 81 ecovillages throughout the country, including three in Massachusetts, according to the EcoVillage Network of the Americas. A directory posted on the network’s Web site includes ecovillages in Petersham, Cummington and Shutesbury.

‘Many Shades of Green’
Ed McMahon, a senior resident fellow for sustainable development for the Urban Land Institute, said it’s difficult to determine exactly how many ecovillages exist because there are various definitions for such communities. McMahon said there is a whole spectrum of green sustainable projects.

“There are many shades of green,” said McMahon.

Mayer, a Framingham-based architect and contractor who collaborated with a Washington, D.C.-based co-housing developer and facilitator to establish EcoDevelopments, explained that units in the Jamaica Plain ecovillage will be well insulated to minimize air infiltration. Photovoltaic, or solar, panels will be installed on the roofs for hot water and energy production. The community also will be built with engineered-wood materials and other green materials, and the waste material resulting from the construction process will be recycled.

In addition, the ecovillage likely will include centralized heating and mechanical systems that can be shared by all owners.

The village also may feature a co-housing component, according to Lautner, who said it largely depends on whether the future residents want to “structure their housing that way.”

In traditional co-housing, there is a more integrated level of community, explained Mayer. Co-housing developments typically feature a common house that offers many auxiliary amenities and involves a high level of community interaction, but while those features may be attractive to some homeowners, they may not appeal to people who value and prefer privacy, he explained.

Mayer said there is a possibility that the new village could feature two separate neighborhoods – one of which would include the co-housing elements.

“We are hoping Â… to have a site of sufficient size to be able to coordinate not one but two neighborhoods within the ecovillage and establish two condo associations so there’s a degree of choice as to the lifestyle situation,” said Mayer.

EcoDevelopments is currently planning a similar type of co-housing village of two independent neighborhoods, located side by side and run by two condo associations owning land in common in Berlin. The project, known as Mosaic Commons, will include 68 units that will be built on 8 acres. “It’s been very well received. It’s already 80 percent pre-sold and we haven’t finished with the approval process yet,” Mayer said.