Page 24 - C.A.L.L. #28 - Spring 2007

A utopian way of life

Leelanau families share ownership to preserve land and their chosen lifestyle

Telford Farm, LLC is a group of 9 families who own an
88-acre farm just north of Cedar, Michigan in scenic
Leelanau County. Along with the rolling landscape of
an old working farm, we have a 7-acre vineyard where
we grow Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Vignole grapes.
BY CARI NOGA
DETROIT FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER

CEDAR -- Follow the 1983 Mercedes with the biodiesel decal. Follow it outside the rural Leelanau
County town of Cedar. Follow it as it turns up the hill covered with grapevines. Follow it to the end
of the asphalt, onto the dirt road and into its own driveway, up to the straw-and-clay house where
Bill Queen, his wife, Kate Fairman, and their two children live.

You've arrived at Telford Farm.

Depending on the day, the residents might be working in the vineyard, wrapping up an afternoon
of homeschooling or preparing for the weekly potluck picnic. Their kids might be at any one of
their four homes, out at the chicken coop feeding the flock or roaming somewhere else on Telford
Farm's 90 acres.

Telford Farm is an intentional community, one of only a handful in Michigan. After almost a decade
in the works, the community is rising on a Leelanau County hillside. Four homes have been built
and a fifth is expected this year. Eventually, there will be at least nine homes on the property.

While residents own their own homes, the
remaining 80 acres is owned collectively, as a
limited liability corporation in which each
household has an equal share. The LLC also
includes a handful of old farm buildings and a
seven acre vineyard.

Residents share the labor, from pruning vines
to harvesting grapes. Any profit made from
the vineyard is deposited into a farm account
from which expenses such as taxes are paid. The The barn at Telford Farm
residents drafted and abide by restrictive covenants
like a 3,000-square-foot limit on home size. There's a monthly meeting -- held out at the barn in
good weather -- where decisions on issues such as vineyard work and whether to allow chickens to
be raised on the farm are made by consensus. If anyone wants to sell, the group has the first rights
to purchase the property back.

To Telford Farm residents, it's utopia. "It's the best of all worlds. We get to live in a rural place, but
we have neighbors," said Hood.

During wrangling with Solon Township over zoning, residents continued planning Telford Farm,
using the services of a consensus facilitator, a landscape architect and an architect and urban
planner. The consensus facilitator was the "single most important thing we did," said Ursu. She
taught them the collaborative decision-making process they continue to use today, rather than a
majority-rule system.

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