January 2010 Newsletter: Greetings from the mountains of North Carolina Like much of the Southeast, we’re starting 2010 in the North Carolina Mountains peeking out from under down comforters and polar fleece. It’s been cold. Record cold, in fact! It’s the kind of weather that brings to mind stories of “cabin fever,” a malady brought on by winter isolation and made worse depending on your distance from the nearest neighbors. In the old days, it could be life threatening. Now it’s just depressing when you find yourself cut off from friends and deprived of the pleasures of community because of the weather. More...

October 2009 Newsletter:
Greetings from the mountains of North Carolina

October in the mountains provides our annual showcase of fall foliage. Which means, in turn, the annual pilgrimage of visitors who enjoy visiting the high country when everything is painted in autumn colors. It's a glorious time. And we're looking forward to seeing many of you. Be sure and give us a call, so we can catch you up on life in Franklin and our plans for Sanctuary Village.

Because we've had so much rain this year -- a welcome change from the drought conditions of a couple years running -- botanists are predicting slightly less vibrant fall colors but a slightly longer leaf season. You can read the latest predictions here in the Franklin Press.

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September 2009 Newsletter:
“A place for all ages”!

Remember when that wasn't such a big deal?

For most of human history, places where people settled were designed to accommodate all ages. It was a matter of survival, taken for granted for the eons that our species evolved in community. But since the advent of the automobile and suburban sprawl, many folks retreated to enclaves segregated by income, building use, and age. The Young and the Cool live here. Couples with Kids live there. Seniors live over there in the "Active Adult" development until they have to move to the Home (which is anything but).

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July 2009 Newsletter:
Greetings from the mountains of North Carolina

Although we’re deep into July, we’ve had a string of what have seemed like spring days, with daytime temperatures in the 70s and the evenings making us wish we hadn’t stored the comforters for the season. A lot of us are convinced we live in paradise most of the year. But even the most enthusiastic community boosters know we’ve been especially blessed lately.

The great weather made Franklin’s annual Folk Festival a big hit this year. My family appreciated it more than usual since this is the first time we could walk to all the downtown fun in ten minutes from our home in Sanctuary Village. For a taste of the Festival, check out our little video here.

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June 2009 Newsletter:
Greetings from the mountains of North Carolina

Happy summer (almost)! Even though the season's official start date is another couple weeks away, we're celebrating in the North Carolina Mountains already. Summer in Franklin means the arrival of old friends and the return of favorite rituals like Saturday morning at the farmer's tailgate market and Saturday evening at "Pickin' on the Square".  It means keeping sweaters handy for the early chills and the cool evenings but breaking out the shorts for the warm afternoons. The spring rains greened up the mountains so beautifully the whole region seems to glow.

At Sanctuary Village, we marked the transition from spring to summer on Memorial Day weekend with another of our potluck dinners on our own Village Square. We roasted a pig Cuban-style, in a charcoal-filled box designed for the purpose. Delicioso, if we do say so ourselves. And the 30 friends, new and old, who added their own dishes to the feast reminded us of the fun ahead, as homes and businesses around our Square multiply and the Village grows. The truth is, though, we're already a neighborhood. More...

May 2009 Newsletter:
Greetings from the mountains of North Carolina

We hope the month is as welcome in your neck of the woods as it is in ours. We're celebrating for several reasons. The big one, of course, is the annual one. May is the when the mountains of North Carolina "green up" into spring, when gardens are planted, and when community gatherings move outdoors. Everything feels fresh and new again.

That goes for us, too. Needless to say, this has been a tough year for real estate development, the worst of it being the level of uncertainty regarding all the interconnected markets -- financial, housing, employment. But it looks like the economy is experiencing a little spring fever, as well.
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April 2009 Newsletter:
Greetings from the mountains of North Carolina

Hello, friends, and hello spring (for sure, this time):

We should have known we'd have the last storm of winter this last week, since this was the week we planned to have water flowing in our Market Square fountain. Sure enough, after a weekend that flirted with 70-degree temperatures on gloriously sunny days, we got a two-day taste of the departing season; which makes the coming weeks of spring weather all the more welcome!

The weekend weather did allow us to wedge in what we intend to be the first of many open-air dinners on the Square. Even with just one house up, we already have a neighborhood in the making. A couple dozen well-wishers, some of them planning to be future Village residents, answered our invitation to help us christen the Square with a potluck dinner under the stars. It was everything we expected. More...

March 2009 Newsletter:
Greetings from the mountains of North Carolina

We're on the way to spring in Franklin.

Despite a day or two of low temps and the occasional blustery wind to remind us that winter's not yet over, we'll soon be seeing the buds and shoots. Spring's a glorious season in the mountains and greatly unappreciated, because our summer visitors don't arrive in time and because the fall hogs all the oohs and ahs for seasonal color. In a way, that makes spring a reward for those of us who live here year round.

The rewards of living year-round in a place have been on my mind lately, because we're now living full-time in our in-town community, Sanctuary Village. We're comfortably settled into the first Village home, an Idea Home I'll talk about a little later. And we're just beginning to show folks around the house and talk about our vision for the Village. More...

February 2009 Newsletter:
Greetings from the mountains of North Carolina

We’re trying to keep ourselves from celebrating spring prematurely. After several weeks of wet and cold weather, the skies turned blue, the sun came out, and the temperatures hit the 60s here in Sanctuary Village.

It’s a tease, of course. It will be another month before flowers begin leaping out of the ground for real – and we really do have glorious springs here in the mountains. More...

January 2009 Newsletter:
The Power of Hope -- and Faith in the Future

I've always been in the can-do camp. So I welcomed the positive energy coming out of Washington, D.C. on January 20. We don't have to abandon reality or ignore the hard work ahead of us to embrace the hopefulness of a new era. And this IS a new era. Despite all the bad news, the whole country seems re-energized. We're feeling it in the North Carolina mountains, too. Some of us, in fact, never lost faith.

Those of you who've watched our progress creating a new in-town neighborhood in Franklin, NC, will be pleased to see we're moving ahead with next steps for Sanctuary Village. The Village's first home, a three-level beauty (elevator served), is up. And my family has moved in. More...

Fall 2008 Newsletter:
Greetings from the mountains of North Carolina

Like me, you must be thankful that the October madness in the markets and now the elections are behind us! Here in Franklin, fall and all of its glory is in its peak. The weather and colors are perfect and while our highs are now in the low 70’s, last week we even had some snow. I have never seen such a beautiful contrast of colors!

I have thought about how I could speak to the times we are living now. If my world were only here in Franklin, I would feel all is right. Locally we have new restaurants, a fine arts theater under construction, our community college is expanding, we will soon have a new paved State Road to Mountain Grove (and our high mountain community – Sanctuary at Mountain Grove) and next month, our first idea home and welcome center here in Sanctuary Village will be open to visitors and sales will officially start in this exciting community. More...

July 2008 Newsletter:
The Sanctuary Village “Green” Way

Joining the Western Carolina Green Building Council has truly been an eye opening experience. Through the process of preparing our homes for NC Healthy Built and Energy Star certification, we've learned that every choice you make in the home building process - things as simple as paint and windows- can impact the environment for present and future generations.

That’s why we’ve made the decision to create Sanctuary Village and its homes in a way that not only lessens that impact but also strives to make things better. For today and tomorrow. More...

June 2008 Newsletter:
Sanctuary Village, One Exciting Piece at a Time

I am happy to say the warm “lazy” days of summer are here. Although for us, we still have cool breezes and ours are definitely not “lazy days” with all we have going on in Sanctuary Village.

Creating Sanctuary Village is, in many ways, like piecing a puzzle together. Each corner, each section, each piece must come together in just the right way to duplicate the scene depicted on the box. More...

Spring 2008 Newsletter:
Greetings from the mountains of North Carolina

It's full-bore spring in the mountains, and my spirits are high. Adding to the inspiration of our setting here in Western North Carolina is the weekend I just spent at the 16th annual gathering of the Congress for the New Urbanism. It was my third CNU conference (www.cnu.org), marking almost exactly the time I've spent on one of the steepest and most thrilling learning curves in community development. More...

Winter 2008 Newsletter:
Greetings from the mountains of North Carolina

• Construction is under way at The Sanctuary Village!
  
• The Sanctuary Village, a Model for Planned Development
  
• Reaching Beyond The Sanctuary Communities
  
• Fun at Mountain Grove

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October, 2007:
Fall greetings from the mountains of North Carolina

We hope your autumn has been a glorious as ours (though we have a hard time imagining that). Because of the dry summer, experts predicted the fall color show in our region wouldn’t be nearly as spectacular as it usually is. But nature frustrated the predictions with a delightful display of color especially at the higher elevations, where our Sanctuary at Mountain Grove is located. More...

September, 2007:
Happy fall from the mountains of North Carolina

The change of season is especially welcome this year, isn’t it?

For most of the Southeast, the summer of 2007 was a scorcher. Our mountains suffered, as well, though not as much as the lowlands. The local organic farmers at Franklin’s weekly tailgate market talked about coping with the dry weather, but the tomato crop seemed as spectacular as usual. And we still heard the annual jokes about squash being so plentiful that you have to keep your car windows rolled up when you park anywhere in town if you don’t want farmers off-loading surplus squash to your back seat. More...

August, 2007:
Summer Days in Franklin, NC

These last two months of summer mark the peak of our traditional family tourist season in Western North Carolina. And this has been a special season in lots of ways.

First of all, it's been heartening for those of us who've tied our futures to these mountains that so many others feel the same way. Despite high gas prices, a jittery housing economy, and the kind of news that might tempt folks to stay home and cover their heads, we're working on a record summer of visitors. More...

June, 2007:
A Summer of New Beginnings

We’re in full-bore summer in the mountains now, hoping, like the rest of the South, for a little more rain but mostly settling into the seasonal routines that are part of the rewards of living in Western North Carolina’s high country. More...

April, 2007:
Letting Go of the Need for Certainty

Since a river outing a week or so ago, I’ve been thinking about how often in life we over-analyze decisions. We seem to crave the assurance of knowing how things are going to turn out before we commit to a new direction. More...

March, 2007:
Regulatory barriers cleared, site planning begins
We’re on our way

After a year of planning, the design of our new in-town community has sailed through all the Town of Franklin approval processes. More...

February, 2007:
The paths we walk lead home

For as long as I can remember, I have always gone for long walks. Whenever I need to find some answers or shed some stress, I head to open ground and fresh air. More...

January, 2007:
From this side of the ridge
Our memories make us who we are

Looking back over the three years since our family moved to Franklin from Florida, I am struck by how the memories we are crea-ting now are so different from those that defined us not so long ago. More...

December 14, 2006:
As we come to the close of 2006, we can hardly wait to continue our momentum into the new year. More Details...

October 31, 2006:
Town planning board approves zoning proposal
By Colin McCandless.
Staff writer The Franklin Press

The Town of Franklin planning board held a special called meeting Thursday to review a set of proposed Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) overlay regulations. Developer Tim Ryan presented them to the town in conjunction with his plans for a community called The Sanctuary Village. Complete story

August 29, 2006:
Sanctuary Village Master Plan book completed, including: master plan concepts, residential architecture and architectural guidelines.

August 1, 2006:
Construction of the first home begins at The Sanctuary at Mountain Grove.
Click here to view photos.

July 13, 2006:
Master plan created for The Sanctuary Village.

May, 2006:
The Sanctuary Communities hires the firm of Allison Ramsey Architects to design a traditional neighborhood development in Franklin, NC.