Its first year behind it, Vedic City sets lofty goals
Mon 29 July 02
By By JEAN GRECO and JO ANN GESNER
Ottumwa Courier Fairfield bureau ÊVEDIC CITY, Iowa -- Vedic City marked its first year of incorporation on July 25 as the newest city in Iowa and some say America.
The state's 950th city is located on an 1,100-acre development just north of Fairfield in Jefferson County.
Founders prefer to call the new city "Maharishi Vedic City" in honor of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the transcendental meditation movement and Maharishi University of Management in neighboring Fairfield.
The city is designed around principles for living espoused by the Indian born guru, now in his 90s.
Vedic City founders are now in the enviable position to implement a new paradigm in city planning by getting in front of new development, according to Mayor Robert Wynne.
The city has 46 structures, each built according to the ancient architectural and planning principles of Maharishi Sthapatya-Veda design. Along with Maharishi Vedic Science, the principles comprise 40 alternative approaches to conventional architecture, community planning, health care, education, music and agriculture.
More than $35 million has been invested on development, according to architect Jonathan Lipman, city planner, along with fellow architect Henry Clark.
Completed projects include The Raj health spa, Ayurvedic clinic and hotel, two other resort hotels -- one employed as office space, condominiums, the basics of an outdoor observatory, apartments, villas and upper end homes and satellite broadcast facilities.
Wynne wants the city to grow as a "completely environmentally-sustainable development" for 8,000 residents. The population now is 150 residents.
In the spotlight
From its inception, Vedic City has garnered attention from the merely curious to today's innovators, from CNN to National Public Radio. Each milestone, no matter how small, captures attention in this community, defined as unique on every front.
A simple home tour, for example, attracted about 800 visitors in May and June.
Experts in New Urbanist planning have advised the city on its development.
Writers have come with a wary eye and gone away converted.
Steve McCann, City Development Board executive director, said when he receives a call from Vedic City, he knows it's going to present an unusual situation for which there is little recent precedent.
The CDB will be asking Vedic City for a review of its first year provision of services.
The board was to evaluate Vedic City's progress annually the first five years to assess that they are accomplishing what they set out to accomplish.
"We don't expect any concern at all," McCann said.
Attracting the curious will be a big part of Vedic City's planned development.
A year ago, Vedic City filed a $10 million grant request to build Maharishi Veda Land from Vision Iowa funds. They asked for 36.4 percent of the estimated $28 million project. Veda Land would consist of an instructional golf course and club house, an intellectual fun theme park based on the dreams of late magician Doug Henning, gardens and lodging facilities and a completed observatory.
After technical meetings with Vision Iowa officials in March, Vedic City revised its grant request into smaller, more manageable components of two phases and will resubmit Phase One of the project application as a Community Attraction Program (CAT) grant this August.
A city of firsts
Moving past plans for obvious tourist attractions, Vedic City will be first in other ways if all goes according to plan, Lipman said.
Given the mandate for a sustainable community, after conventional infrastructure needs are met, the plan is for Vedic City to be off-the-grid as much as possible.
"This will not make it in contrast to Vedic principles, but rather will add to those ideas," Lipman said.
The city is looking at ways to buy power from itself for example. Solar panels and windmills may dot the landscape, Lipman said.
One of 22 newly-formed citizen volunteer action committees is the Chamber of Sustainable Utilities and Infrastructure. The committee has suggested plans for at least minimal or off-the-grid water resourcing, water recycling, sewer and wastewater processing, and energy production.
Bob Haug, executive director of the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities, suggested it is not only possible, but plausible and all the rage on the West and East coasts, where lack of such planning is clearly evident.
Mayor Wynne says the city plans to build using municipal bonds, grants, tourism, organic agriculture industries and new business development.
When you peel through the layers of what Vedic City wants to be, Wynne begins to sound like Maharishi himself. Foremost in the city leader's plan is the mantra "world peace."
"It is very necessary that the U.S., as the most powerful country in the world, have a large group of at least 8,000 Yogic Flyers 'lighthouses of coherence' to create peace," he said.
"We have to counterbalance America's aggressive tendencies to bomb and invade countries in order to try to protect itself from terrorism," he said. "Only light can dispel darkness, and only by creating a powerful influence of peace and harmony in the U.S. can we help to neutralize the acute stress that is fueling violence and terrorism in the world. We have to do our part."
One family's story: They came for a school and a way of life
VEDIC CITY -- Richard Borg and his family barely notice that they are living in a newly incorporated area.
The former Silicon Valley, Calif., residents are tenants and don't have to pay real estate taxes.
Vedic City, in existence for one year, has not yet begun to levy property taxes on residents.
The Borgs selected Vedic City because it is near Fairfield, the home of Maharishi School which their two children attend.
"The fact that the school is near Vedic City, is just icing on the cake," Borg said.
The Borgs also sought to deepen the experience of relocating by moving into Sthapatya Veda-designed quarters.
"We said if we are going to move here, we may as well experience all of it," Borg said.
"It" being the transcendental meditation movement that emanates from Fairfield.
Borg said his children were able to sit in on classes at the Maharishi School in February and after that, did not want to go back to California.
The family had been searching high and low, from parochial schools to private, to the best public school districts in the Palo Alto area, for a curriculum that addressed the whole child.
"We found nothing that taps into the inner resources of the child the way the Maharishi School does," Borg said. "They offer a really practical approach that helps children succeed in whatever they endeavor to do. We just felt it was the best choice."
Borg's mother, who has had knee replacements, visited for an extended stay when emergency services were required. He said the local ambulance service was able to find her and responded in a timely and professional way.
What Vedic City leaders had to establish with a special oversight board in Des Moines before being approved is whether as a city it could provide police and fire protection for its citizens.
Will the Borgs take up permanent residence here?
It's a distinct possibility, says Borg who does not balk at local housing prices.
Borg said that near his Vedic City address, a single family home on one acre is selling for under $200,000.
"Seems like a real bargain when you compare it to California prices," Borg said.
The benefits of the change have been apparent for the couple's daughter, Minca, a recent national essay contest winner.
In an earlier interview, Ashley Deans, head administrator at the school, said that planners are looking at many ideas for the future, particularly in light of the school accepting borders this fall for the first time, and Vedic City's hoped-for growth of 8,000 residents.
"We would be needing more room," Deans said, hinting that the idea for a school in Vedic City someday is under consideration.
Borg said where the school is located doesn't matter. His children will be attending.
A history of Vedic City
By JEAN GRECO and JO ANN GESNER,
Courier Fairfield BureauVEDIC CITY -- The journey toward being the city of "firsts" began Jan. 11, 2001, when application to the state's City Development Board was approved.
On May 22, 2001, would-be citizens approved 64-1, a referendum to establish a city.
Vedic City was inaugurated at 12:35 p.m. on July 25, 2001 when incorporation papers were filed with state and county government making it an official city. Residents and well-wishers strewed flower petals, Indian pundits chanted, a cornerstone was laid, a flag was raised at the entrance.
Nov. 6, 2001: The first mayor and city council were elected to serve through December 2003.
Nov. 13, 2001: The City Council adopted its first laws, declaring the Constitution of the Universe -- Total Natural Law -- to be the guiding light of the city; Sanskrit, the language of the Veda, (ancient religious texts) to be its ideal language, (though it is not in use today, it is taught at nearby Maharishi School) and expanded the name of the city from Vedic City to Maharishi Vedic City.
Vedic City has few laws so far.
The reason for the first law, according to Mayor Robert Wynne "is that the Constitution of the Universe is the fundamental level of Natural Law identified both by modern science and by ancient Vedic wisdom."
"From this level are available technologies that can automatically and instantaneously produce increasing happiness and betterment of life of the people and more effortless, successful administration for all government," he said.
In November, the City Council approved the voluntary annexation of an additional 450 acres, bringing the total area to 1,100 acres. The state City Development Board gave its final approval with a 5-0 vote in December.
Also in December, Vedic City Council passed its sixth resolution to create a Master City Development Plan "to create a model city of peace, prosperity and happiness for its citizens."
A key component is a group of 8,000 Yogic Flyers (advanced meditators) who will "create coherence for Vedic City and extend a positive influence to the rest of Iowa, the United States and world," according to Wynne.
From December 2001 to February 2002, discussions were held with neighboring Fairfield on a possible moratorium on future annexations and development plans for the two-mile urbanized areas around the two cities. Currently the fruits of these discussions are with Fairfield's Property Committee.
In February 2002, a new international currency known as Raam Mudra started its official circulation as an additional currency in Vedic City, with the dollar, "to further economic development by supporting circulation in the Global Country of World Peace." (a country without borders)
Some Fairfield banks expressed initial interest in providing Raam exchange centers, but later withdrew.
Fifty new residents were added to the base of 125, when Maharishi Open University satellite broadcasting facilities set up shop in the new city, having relocated from Boone, N.C. Boone is the home of the movement's Spiritual Center of America, where Maharishi followers can go on extended retreat or live in solitude.
Also in March, the City Council adopted a budget of $82,885 to operate without raising taxes for two years, approved a 5 percent hotel/motel tax from which 25 percent of the collected revenues will be used to promote the city, and borrowed $45,000 to cover operating expenses to be reimbursed with property tax revenues.
In May, Vedic City got serious about infrastructure. Wynne recently asked members of Fairfield's and Vedic City's TM communities to lend their expertise to attract new residents, tourists and businesses after Maharishi called for 8,000 meditators to populate Vedic City in order to create coherence in the United States.