Here's another approach (one of many alternatives) to building resilient communities that may be of interest:

There seems to be a considerable amount of interest (on my backchannel) in building resilient communities as completely new and professionally designed housing developments. Given how terrible the housing market is (and will continue to be from here on out), this makes sense. It's the only game in town.

It's also an effort that has the potential to succeed. There are hundreds of thousands of people (soon to be millions) that both fear the social/economic tsunami ahead and have the (current) financial resources to fully fund the development of resilient communities. These people have a overwhelming desire to circle the wagons (for themselves now, for retirement, or their extended families) while they still can.

However, serving this emerging market is going to require a major shift in culture for most traditional developers. Why? Selling a resilient community is a very different process than selling a house (school quality, commute distance, architectural amenities, etc.) or a retirement/vacation retreat (luxury, services, access, etc.). It's about selling a complete and integrated economic and social system (of which there are many designs to choose from), in microcosm. In short, these communities need to embody a vision of a viable and vibrant future that will persist despite widespread global failure.

As a result, successful developments that serve this emerging market will need to do everything from finding ways to fund the buildout and management of new resilient community infrastructures to the ongoing economic/financial support required to establish and grow a large number of prosperous local producers (that will eventually power the community over the longer run as the global situation worsens). Anything less won't sell.