IMBY – in my back yard

Close to where we have a family home in Canada is an interesting new development.  It is a new condominium project in the woods (there are lots of woods).  It is the dream and effort of two local women who are determined to combine environmental and social concerns to create healthy homes.  The development is in Cantley, Quebec, not far from Canada’s capital, Ottawa.  There is not a lot of detail here about its energy performance.  Obviously, EiD will have to do a site visit and report back.  Anyway, this is a sustainable project that I would certainly be pleased to have next door.

 This is an article by Anita Murray in the Ottawa Citizen.

A healthy way to live

Two women with a shared passion for healthy living have joined forces to become the driving force behind a fledgling development company whose primary goal is to create homes that improve health.

Brought together by a mutual acquaintance a few years ago, Maria Montilva and Sheryl Gabel realized they could pair their personal experiences and knowledge to solve the same issues.

The result is the launch this week of their flagship project L’Oasis, a 24-unit condo development nestled in a hilly forest in Cantley that focuses on creating a community of healthy living through sound environmental practices and an emphasis on connecting residents to each other.

“We are really trying to preserve, restore, regenerate the health of both humans and the natural environment,” says Gabel. “It’s not the typical condo model.”

The company, Abeilla Developments, sees three core pillars as the key to their model: healthy homes, natural surroundings and an engaged community.

By paying attention to everything from the site location (a natural, semi-rural environment in an area with little air, water, noise, light and electromagnetic pollution), construction materials and techniques (think low-VOC and hypoallergenic products, for example) and indoor living quality (HEPA filters, regular air exchange and hydronic heating) to social integration (multi-use facilities, community gardens and more), the aim is to reduce various stressors that affect the health of both the residents and the property.

For Montilva, a 43-year-old mother of four boys aged 3 to 23, it’s the realization of a lifelong dream.

“My passion about building started when I was five,” she says in the basement office of her Cantley home, which she built herself a decade ago. Never one to play with dolls, she always wanted LEGO for Christmas so she could build cities, spending hours thinking about such details as where to place the fire station so it could serve everyone equally. “It was not only building a house; my worry was about integration.”

Integration and the importance of connecting in a community was something she experienced first-hand growing up in Venezuela. Although born in Quebec, she was adopted by Venezuelan parents and speaks with a delightful Spanish accent.

She wanted to follow her heart and study architecture, but was pushed to follow in her father’s footsteps — he was the president of a bank — and took economics instead. Not long after graduating, political instability coupled with chronic asthma and allergy issues that her young son faced prompted her to return to her birthplace in search of a better living environment.

But her son’s health, aggravated by environmental sensitivities, would not improve until she researched how to create the best possible home for him, settling on Cantley and building a modified R-2000 home.

Now she wants to take what she’s learned — and continues to learn — and offer it to others.

“We’re not standard builders, we’re just moms,” she says with a mischievous smile. Although she works for the federal government in infrastructure analysis and evaluation, she plans to still make time to personally keep tabs on construction, which will start this spring if sales go as planned.

Gabel’s background has her naturally focusing more on the marketing end.

“It’s a complicated product,” she admits. “The more we talk about it, the simpler we’re trying to make it for people.”

At 49, the electrical engineer with experience in business, marketing and green business management is devoting herself full time to the project.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to make a small impact,” says Gabel, mother to a 10-year-old boy and 13-year-old girl. “To get people to start thinking more about their health when they are making purchasing decisions, but it’s not the norm at the moment.”

As part of that, the units feature open-concept plans and plenty of windows (each unit is a corner unit) to help foster connections to nature and each other. As well, Abeilla will organize initial activities to help break the ice and get residents involved, based on how they respond. “The real authors of these communities are the residents,” says Montilva.

Gabel adds, “We’ve done a lot of work to make sure that the facilities that we do provide are of interest and appealing to people.” They include a common room with fully equipped kitchen, fitness and leisure facilities, a workshop and communal gardens.

The pedestrian-oriented community features 1.2 kilometres of natural paths through the 12-acre property, linking the project’s three condo buildings, four ponds, mixed hardwood forest and a nearby commercial centre that will include a grocery store, pharmacy and restaurant.

“I can’t imagine a better environment for people that are outdoor enthusiasts,” says Gabel, herself a nature lover who feels most relaxed when she’s outdoors. The rural location is surprisingly close to downtown Ottawa, a scant 16 km away along scenic Highway 307, and features rush-hour access to public transit.

Although parking is above ground, parking areas are water permeable and camouflaged with pergolas and trees to help preserve the natural environment. Both incoming and outgoing water is treated, as is sewage; residents will be encouraged to minimize the use of harsh chemicals and the communal gardens will be fed by rainwater collected from the building roofs. (Abeilla will make a horticulturalist available to residents to help get the gardens going.)

Individual units will include a heat recovery ventilator, hot water tank, tile and hardwood floor finishings and more.

There is a natural appeal to those who suffer from environmental sensitivities (the Environmental Hypersensitivity Association has already been in touch), but Montilva and Gabel hope to attract a range of buyers from families to retirees.

The facilities “were intentionally built for multi-generation, multi-abilities. We didn’t want to provide facilities that are of interest only to a small segment of the population,” says Gabel.

Occupancy is expected in December.