# Can you start a new town in America?



## seedspreader

Reading all these "intentional community" threads got me to thinking. Can you start a new town in America today? (I don't want to... so please don't tell me it won't work) My point is just that every thing is pretty much owned already and considered a "township" or a "village" or a city already isn't it? Even if I bought 500 acres and built a huge community, wouldn't our taxes go to whatever township/village/city we were part of? Could we "secede" and create our own town, or would it more likely be that if it was that succesful, that we would just take over the town we were "in".

Please let me know as I plan to take over America and remake it to my liking. How does the Republic of Bobmerica sound? (Ok, this last sentence is for fun, but the first part is something I have actually wondered, I mean isn't that why Jim Jones went to Guayana and started Jamestown? "WHO'S GONNA GET YA THERE? JIM JONES IS GONNA GET YOU THERE"


----------



## Ozarks_1

Bob, it's possible to start a new town in America today ... maybe not in your state, but it IS possible. (I personally looked into it at one time.)

Here in Arkansas, there is a lot of land "out in the county" - which means it's not within an incorporated community. Town/city lines do not necessarily border up to each other; there can be literally miles of unincorporated "county" land between the "city limits". (I live "in the county" - there is approx 8 miles of "county" between our closest community and the next one.) 
If someone were to buy a large parcel of land and go through the permits with State and county, they could establish their own community. You'd still have to put up with Federal, State, and county regulations (like you do now), but you'd have your own community regulations.


----------



## Wolf mom

You can do anything if you have enough money. Remember the golden rule??
"He who has the gold rules"

Here in Arizona, we have a town called Anthem. It was carved out of the desert, yes desert - with all of our water problems - by the peple who built Sun City ( the retirement community) outside of Phoenix. It's probably about 6/7 years old and it thriving. There was a lot of "Save out desert" people, but again, money won out. :flame: :grump: :flame: 

I understand in Nevada, there's a small town of like minded people that periodocially try to cede (sp?) from the union - may be just a rumor though.

Maybe you should move out west, young man.


----------



## Darren

The answer is yes you can start a new town but you'll have to comply with the applicable state law since the new town will be a subdivision of the state. The downside is the town once chartered by the state would also have to comply with the applicable federal regulations and mandates. That's something you really need to understand before going down that road.


----------



## Cheryl in SD

I live in a town of 42, it is not incoporated, a township or anything. We are just HERE and have been for over 100 years. The land all around us is not part of any organized community either. There is a LOT of unclaimed (by community) land in SD. We used to live in the largest township in the state, it had about 30 people but covered an area 25 miles long and 15 miles wide.  We had no township taxes but could control developement in the area.


Cheryl


----------



## seedspreader

Darren said:


> The answer is yes you can start a new town but you'll have to comply with the applicable state law since the new town will be a subdivision of the state. The downside is the town once chartered by the state would also have to comply with the applicable federal regulations and mandates. That's something you really need to understand before going down that road.



You must have missed the part where I said I DON'T want to do that... just wondering. When was the last time you all saw a new town pop up around you.


----------



## cwgrl23

There is a group of people actually trying to do this here in SD. They are trying to start a town from what was AG ground. After seeing all the problems they are running into - I would think that it would be easier to go to a small town and buy it up - but that is just me!


----------



## Cara

There's a town for sale in Eastern Oregon...maybe you should buy a fixer-upper town instead of building from scratch! Isn't that what most of us homesteaders do? :sing:


----------



## Wags

It isn't unusual for communitues out west to decide to incorporate. Just requires some planning and a positive vote. Lot of unincorporated land out here.


----------



## Donovan K

_When was the last time you all saw a new town pop up around you. 
_

I live in Florida and this happens all the time. I lived in Ocala for many years in the 1990's, left and came back in 2004. In the meantime, a city of more than a hundred thousand people sprang up from what was once a small mobile home park and a lot of old orange groves. And it is not just a subdivision, it is a chartered city. They are expecting to grow another forty thousand homes before they are done. It is under one developer and is really an amazing community. 

It is not really that difficult to plat a subdivision, build a community, it just takes money and time. The trouble is that you are not autonomous. You have to follow all the rules, county, federal, state laws. You cant make yourself 'dictator for life' and make up your rules.


----------



## Quint

Well, the the cult of wacky (and well financed) followers of maharishi mahesh yogi created their own town in southeastern Iowa by taking over a defunct college and later taking over a large portion of the town of Fairfield Iowa. They now have something they call "vedic city" which is an actual incorporated town and they can collect taxes, have their own police etc. They also print their own currency. Drive through the town sometime and you will see these big golden domes that they supposedly fly around in. I spent some time in the area back in the early 90s and it was quite eye opening to say the least.


----------



## heather

Yes, you can start a town -
there was one started in a neiboring co. a couple years ago

the Borough of Seven Fields, PA 

I wouldn't live there if you paid me - couldn't afford to anyway -
But, you can start a town in America these days

by the Sway, here's a link to Vedic City


----------



## almostthere

There was a town for sale not too long ago on Ebay. You could go to Montana and buy up some cheap land and develop it. You could go into one of America's many areas facing the aftermath of jobs moving out of the country. I'm sure you could find a small town of of 5-600 or less and build it up to accomidate the needs of the community. Start a private school for residents children so they won't have to be bussed to the next biggest town. Encourage people to open and use local restaurants, hardware and grocery stores. Build a community center so the old timers and teens alike will have someplace to hang out.


----------



## Morriagiolla

Any one have an idea of how to do an unincorperated town?


----------



## seedspreader

heather said:


> Yes, you can start a town -
> there was one started in a neiboring co. a couple years ago
> 
> the Borough of Seven Fields, PA
> 
> I wouldn't live there if you paid me - couldn't afford to anyway -
> But, you can start a town in America these days
> 
> by the Sway, here's a link to Vedic City



From what i can see Seven Fields has been around a lot longer than a couple years. In 1990 they had a population of 556, and "The bourogh of seven fields" has a "seven fields" mailing address, to me it seems to be the "sub community taking over the real city scenario" that I talked about before.

Having researched the vedic site yet, and thankful I don't live there.


----------



## cwgrl23

Do a search for Laurent (sp?), South Dakota. This is the town they are trying to start in SD. It is going to be an intentional deaf community. I still think that they should just "take over" a small town that is dying instead of spending millions of dollars building a new one. :soap: But that is just my two cents. We have so many towns in SD that are struggling and they want to build a new one?


----------



## 65284

Yes, this recently happened in Boone County, Missouri. The city of Columbia is growing like a cancer and aggressively annexing (just adding to it's tax base) land in all directions when allowed to do so. A small community that was growing closer to Columbia with every new annexation chose to incorporate and become a legal entity rather than be swallowed by this onrushing monster with all of it's added taxes, codes, rules and regulations. The Columbia bureaucrats had a cow, ranted and raved, did everything they could to prevent it, blathered on about how these selfish folks were going to prevent the "orderly growth" of the city. But all to no avail they couldn't stop the incorporation, and are still whining about it.


----------



## seedspreader

> Vedic Agriculture: The City recognizes the importance of healthy food for its citizens has banned the sale of all non-organic food from its city and has begun construction on the first of a planned 100 acres of greenhouses at Maharishi Vedic City Organic Farms which will grow organic produce for residents of the City and Midwest.


Hmmm, that will be interesting to see if someone would move there and challenge this as unconstitutional. This city is big business from what I can see... everything on their website... "The Maharish XXXXX SM or TM" is trademarked. What a creepy place.


----------



## TedH71

About Laurent, South Dakota..their website is: www.laurentsd.com/ and yes, I'm deaf but they do have their reasons and it's on their website. Check it out. Gotta run.

Ted


----------



## Darren

"Any one have an idea of how to do an unincorperated town?" That's easy. If you're the only family there, put up a sign naming the place beside the roads into the town. If quite a few families live there, have a meeting and reach a consensus for the name and then put the signs up.

You may need an encroachment permit from the highway department of you're going to put the signs on the state right of way.


----------



## vicki in NW OH

Tom Monahan (the Domino pizza guy) is behind building Ave Maria, FL. The town is being built around the new university.

www.avemaria.com


----------



## ToraAnne

Carl's Corner, Tx is a new (last 20yrs) city. The man "Carl" is friends with Willie Nelson and they just had Willie's 4th of July Picnic there.


----------



## Quint

ZealYouthGuy said:


> Hmmm, that will be interesting to see if someone would move there and challenge this as unconstitutional. This city is big business from what I can see... everything on their website... "The Maharish XXXXX SM or TM" is trademarked. What a creepy place.



Yeah there is a definite creepiness to the place. Sort of this outpost of weirdness and creepiness in a sea of normalcy. The places around there are your normal Midwest farming towns. Some light industry and ag related stuff. Just your good old fashioned Midwestern town and normal Midwestern folks. You can pick out any property the maharishis own. It has a weird eastern look to it. They remodel all of the houses so the doors open to a certain direction. They tore down some historic buildings because they gave off bad vibes. Really angered the locals. There is some definite friction between the cult and the locals from what I was told especially since the whole vedic city thing went down.

I met quite a few of the cultists and they were nice enough. As teenage boys we had our own interests and objectives of course. Let's just say that there were several of the maharishi girls that were quite amicable especially if you feigned interest in all things transcendental. I will always remember that it was in what is now vedic city that I encountered a female who didn't shave anything. Pits, legs, nothing. I was seriously creeped out but teenage boys being what they are, and my sense of loyalty being what it is, I jumped on the grenade for my friends as it were. I was most relieved to discover this wasn't prevalent thing even amongst the cultists.

Its worth a visit if one is ever in the area just for the freakshow aspect. That and Fairfield and the surrounding area are just nice places to visit in general despite the cult outpost in their midst.


----------



## QBVII

I remember a few years ago, Kim Basinger (the actress) supposedly bought Athens, Georgia....(don't ask me why...guess she just wanted "her own town".....?)

:shrug:


----------



## Amello

The benevolent streak in me got to thinking about starting a new town based almost solely on building very inexpensive housing for just about anyone who is homeless, on the brink of poverty and so forth to combat the super rising cost of real estate and rents.
I'm pretty sure I'd have to hit the lottery to get this off the ground and I'm not holding my breath on that and all these people would need some jobs other than building houses so some type of business has to become part of the town that isn't the lone voice in how things run. Politicians being politicians everywhere they usually become beholden to the money.. A company town where the company is owned by the town? It's tough finding two people who agree on the price of bubblegum much less how to run a town or a business.. I have almost zero organizational skills so I guess my fantasies of starting this dream town die with my lack of the above mentioned skills. On the other hand I'm organized enough to build chairs from 2x8s.. I'm not utterly inept.


----------



## Wolf mom

Many homeless people do not want to live in a place where there are rules. Many have mental illness issues. They choose to live where they are. Unless the courts mandate where they live, you cannot make them live someplace. Studies have been done where homeless have been set up in apartments and within a few months are back on the streets. 
No, I am not talking about the minority that have lost a job and this is a temporary situation.

There's a few closed army bases that could be used to house homeless. Move them all there - kitchens, bathing facilities, housing, etc. are already there. Have those that work with the homeless go to the base. Sure would be simpler.


----------



## AmericanStand

I've thought about opening a town for truck drivers. , big parking spaces and laws in a truckers favor.


----------



## hunter63

AmericanStand said:


> I've thought about opening a town for truck drivers. , big parking spaces and laws in a truckers favor.


THere are some towns for sale.....
If you read for of the listing they refer to "creating a own"...etc.
So apparently is fairly common. 
Just a few>
https://www.commercialrealestate.com.au/news/be-your-own-mayor-six-towns-for-sale-right-now/


----------



## Terri

I have driven through a few "Unincorporated town - no services". They were a cluster of a few houses with a sign with the name of the town on it. They were not on th map because they were unincorporated.

You could probably do the same if the neighbors agreed.


----------



## AmericanStand

Seems like I looked it up a few years ago and you had to have 20 voters within a mile vote to incorporate as a town. 
Well in this state.


----------



## SLADE

Did'nt Ted Turner buy an entire county?


----------



## fordy

.........he didn't need to buy a town , he bought Jane Fonda ! , fordy


----------



## Oregon1986

Cara said:


> There's a town for sale in Eastern Oregon...maybe you should buy a fixer-upper town instead of building from scratch! Isn't that what most of us homesteaders do? :sing:


What town is that?


----------



## Evons hubby

Cara said:


> There's a town for sale in Eastern Oregon...maybe you should buy a fixer-upper town instead of building from scratch! Isn't that what most of us homesteaders do? :sing:


westfall??


----------



## brosil

Levis Commons in or near Perrysburg, Ohio. Build a downtown with the same stores as a mall and build offices and condos/apartments around it. Wallah! Instant town and creepy as Hell.


----------



## Nature Man

Just Google "small towns for sale" very interesting


----------



## Southern Forest

Not far from me they attempted to incorporate a community named Belleview. The idea was to avoid the encroachment of Hattiesburg, MS, into the rural area by incorporating their own town. It came up for a vote and I believe it failed as the folks didn't want their taxes to go up. The real problem with such sprawl is that the spreading cities only reach out to those areas that have high taxable incomes, ignoring those areas that do not, and as such end up looking like octopi.


----------



## wy_white_wolf

The concept of incorporating new towns has pretty much been replaced by HOAs. Same principle that you get to make local regulations but are not regulated as much by the state or federal regulations in how you govern. But then state/Federal grants and funding is not available either.

WWW


----------



## cb7010

Amello said:


> The benevolent streak in me got to thinking about starting a new town based almost solely on building very inexpensive housing for just about anyone who is homeless, on the brink of poverty and so forth to combat the super rising cost of real estate and rents.
> I'm pretty sure I'd have to hit the lottery to get this off the ground and I'm not holding my breath on that and all these people would need some jobs other than building houses so some type of business has to become part of the town that isn't the lone voice in how things run. Politicians being politicians everywhere they usually become beholden to the money.. A company town where the company is owned by the town? It's tough finding two people who agree on the price of bubblegum much less how to run a town or a business.. I have almost zero organizational skills so I guess my fantasies of starting this dream town die with my lack of the above mentioned skills. On the other hand I'm organized enough to build chairs from 2x8s.. I'm not utterly inept.


I think the more practical course would be for a few like-minded people to purchase their own property and move to an area around an existing small town. I've seen a few dying little towns in rural America where existing land/farms around them are dirt cheap, so you'd think this could be easily done. The thought of banding together in a coordinated fashion to create a like-minded community sounds great; but, even when everyone would own their own property I haven't seen too many example of this being done. So, I think most just find a nice piece of property on their own and hope the other people who are already there are friendly. Heck, the same thing applies in big cities, I've never really heard of a group of friends all buying homes on the same street. It could easily be done; but, a variety of factors seem to keep most people from banding more closely together in our nuclear society.


----------



## AmericanStand

It's simply the lack of need. The way things are in the USA most adults can live a few miles from their friends and still visit quite conveniently. Members of the church can travel a few dozen miles to go to church there. And hundreds of like minded homesteaders from all over the world can meet here on this forum.


----------



## Southern Forest

Of course, there's the flip-side. The town of Wilmer, Alabama, which I drive through quite frequently, got tired of being known as Speed Trap USA. They really were bad about catching folks, which makes sense as their other sources of revenue were pretty small. In any case, the citizens rose up and in an election dis-incorporated their town. The town hasn't really changed much since then, except that you needn't worry about getting a ticket for doing 2mph over.


----------



## The Rhino

Morriagiolla said:


> Any one have an idea of how to do an unincorperated town?


this is one of my questions. which is better if one wants to start a small town? incorporated or unincorporated?


----------



## AzWoodWarrior

Wolf mom said:


> You can do anything if you have enough money. Remember the golden rule??
> "He who has the gold rules"
> 
> Here in Arizona, we have a town called Anthem. It was carved out of the desert, yes desert - with all of our water problems - by the peple who built Sun City ( the retirement community) outside of Phoenix. It's probably about 6/7 years old and it thriving. There was a lot of "Save out desert" people, but again, money won out. 🔥 :grump: 🔥
> 
> I understand in Nevada, there's a small town of like minded people that periodocially try to cede (sp?) from the union - may be just a rumor though.
> 
> Maybe you should move out west, young man.



I'm not sure if Anthem is the best of examples, yes Del Webb did start a ground up track of homes. Where I see a difference from the original question is Anthem isn't a town it's a giant master planned community with an HOA for a government not a municipality with a mayor and council. I considered Anthem, and for the reasons I just mentioned chose the city of Maricopa instead. Which was a great choice considering the new Lucid manufacturing plant is almost complete and my home value has gone up. What brought me to this page was research to start my own town. It will most likely be in either Gila or Greenlee County. There is 1200 acres in Greenlee for 800k. I'm looking to start a place where neighbors help their neighbors. Children are safe to play outside. The fruits of community will not be reserved for a collective pooling of tax dollars, but for survival itself. To generate it's own electricity, grow its own food, just basically try to achieve a state of autarchy. It's only my opinion, but I feel like the farther human hands get from the soil the farther their hearts get from God. I don't mean the Christian diety, but my own conception. I have lofty goals, high expectations, and unwavering resolve. If anyone reads this and wants information, my profile should lead you to me, and possibly a brighter, more rewarding wholesome future


----------



## Wolf mom

This thread was started in *2005*.

I moved almost 5 years ago. If you want to talk about starting a new town, why not start a new thread with updated government regulations?

So sorry you got caught up in the "recommended" for you trap.


----------



## MagickWizard

Cheryl in SD said:


> I live in a town of 42, it is not incoporated, a township or anything. We are just HERE and have been for over 100 years. The land all around us is not part of any organized community either. There is a LOT of unclaimed (by community) land in SD. We used to live in the largest township in the state, it had about 30 people but covered an area 25 miles long and 15 miles wide.  We had no township taxes but could control developement in the area.
> 
> 
> Cheryl


A town with 42 100 year olds? I'm on my way.


----------



## Avischeree

Cheryl in SD said:


> I live in a town of 42, it is not incoporated, a township or anything. We are just HERE and have been for over 100 years. The land all around us is not part of any organized community either. There is a LOT of unclaimed (by community) land in SD. We used to live in the largest township in the state, it had about 30 people but covered an area 25 miles long and 15 miles wide.  We had no township taxes but could control developement in the area.
> 
> 
> Cheryl


How is it going now? Well I hope. I want to do this!


----------

