Where you live is the foundation of your lifestyle. Urban areas lend themselves to a lifestyle of social interaction, cultural events, career climbing, and because of limited space, world-building that includes what’s outside of the home more than what’s inside.

Rural areas are peaceful and provide more space to build, create, and cultivate your own slice of the planet. Suburbia on the other hand, provides a lifestyle of organized ease, big parking lots for grocery shopping, abundant elementary schools, sports fields, tidy parks, community activities, and often a surplus of square footage to decorate and redecorate to your heart’s content.

Some struggle with the choice of where to plant themselves, loving the culture of the city while wanting the space to grow their own organic food, desiring the ease of the suburbs, yet valuing the ability to walk or bike for food and socializing. Where can we have it all–or even just most of it?

If the farm-to-table community movement seen at The Cannery takes flight, we might be able to in the near future.

The Cannery is a new planned community in Davis, California that was designed to promote nature, sustainability, community and healthy living for both humans and the environment. The homes are bordered by the community’s own 7.4 acre urban farm, scratching the itch of those who fantasize about rural living.

Each home is within 300 feet of a park or trail leading to the bicycle network of the city of Davis. There are attached and detached homes of varying price ranges for sale or rent, some including “life space” in the form of guest houses and guest quarters for multi-generational living.

As I’m sure you can guess, the homes are energy-efficient. A 1.5 kV photovoltaic solar energy system will come standard with every home, and residents can upgrade to net zero living.

The site itself is on the grounds of the former Hunt-Wesson tomato cannery, meaning the development didn’t disrupt any open spaces during construction.

For those who love the convenience of suburbia, the community has parks, paths, stores, restaurants, and plazas to make things easy and accessible, also lowering residents’ reliance on cars.

The development also brings the fun. There is a pool and spa, a ranch house for community gatherings, a barn for harvesting, and an amphitheater for fairs, festivals, concerts, and performances.

The park system at The Cannery covers a total of 4.7-acres and includes a practice field, sports court, bocce ball, space to play and a gazebo. If shopping is how you have fun, you can do that there too.

We may have just found the love child of the Stepford Wives blended with a hippie commune from the 60’s.

According to CivilEats there are currently 200 other agrihoods like The Cannery–communities that value connection to the earth, community interaction, sustainable living, and a physical contribution to their food source. Does this mean the “soccer moms” will be providing locally grown organic snacks?

All photos via The Cannery