The New Earth Living website has posted information on their upcoming project on 619 Five Mile Drive called “Amabel,” a proposed new series of pocket neighborhoods that would be much larger than the recently completed Aurora Pocket Neighborhood. In this preliminary design, five neighborhoods consisting of six or seven households share a common house, gardens, and shed/garage space. Planned technologies include strong insulation, solar power, and rainwater harvesting, much like the Aurora Pocket Neighborhood employs. Ithacating’s Article observantly notes that although this area has seen many single-family homes built recently, there’s nothing quite like this proposal.
The site is about a mile from downtown Ithaca (as the crow flies), so residents could travel down Floral Ave (13A), cross the bridge, and they’d be on the West side. The walking route down Floral Ave then to the Commons is about two miles. The surroundings are suburban; Calvary Cemetery is across the street, and just down the road is the bottom of Bostwick Rd, which has the Ithaca City School District Bus Garage and the Tompkins County Highway Department & Facilities Division.