Location: Loreto Bay, Baja California
11/01/2006
Most of us breathed a sigh of relief when nasally, Dumbo-eared Ross Perot did not become our 42nd president. But you have to admit the guy had a penchant for infuriatingly pragmatic declarations. And if his no-nonsense definition of “activist” tells it plainly like it is—that an activist is the man who cleans up the river, not the one who says it is dirty—then Canadian developer David Butterfield is one to the core.For years Butterfield has been proving that “sustainable development” is not a contradiction in terms. At projects like Civano in Tucson (he was the initial founder) and Shoal Point in British Columbia, he designed comprehensive plans for energy-efficient communities that make less of an impact on the land. With his latest development, Loreto Bay on the Sea of Cortés in Mexico’s Baja California Sur (BCS), he goes one better, attempting not only to avoid further damage to the landscape from human incursion, but also to regenerate the land to something resembling its former ecological glory. And that “huge sucking sound” you hear (to quote Perot one last time—we promise) is the tide of investors making its way to Loreto to snatch up homes that range from an eminently affordable $380,000 to $2 million, or to build more elaborate custom residences on waterside lots priced from $750,000 to $1.15 million.
Butterfield’s ambitions are grand indeed. The $3 billion plan’s projected 15-year span calls for, among other things: producing more energy from renewable resources and harvesting more potable water than the community actually consumes; creating more biodiversity, biomass and habitat than existed when the first backhoe hit the soil; and building sustainable economic and social capital for native Loretanos.
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Most homes are built in the native vernacular. Photograph by Werner Segarra. (Click image to enlarge)The breadth of the project is unprecedented. It even extends, says Loreto Bay Company vice president for sustainability David Veniot, to the soap Butterfield wants to stock in the Loreto Bay Beach Club & Spa that is about to break ground. “David said, ‘So many of these products are benign,’” recalls Veniot. “Then he started to consider using products that contribute to the environment. He thought we should do some chemical soil analyses and talk to cosmetics companies about developing products that actually help enrich the soil.”
When the Milan-born priest Juan Maria de Salvatierra landed in Baja in 1697 and established the Mission of Our Lady of Loreto (Latin for “laurel”), he found native populations living in relative harmony with nature on an alluvial plain hemmed by two watersheds, El Tular and El Zacatal. Early Jesuit illustrations of the area show beavers, so water was evidently abundant enough to support them. Estuary waters flowing through miles of mangroves teemed with fish that came here to spawn then return to the bountiful Sea of Cortés.
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Photograph by Werner Segarra. (Click image to enlarge)But within 300 years, the majority of the mangroves disappeared, consumed as fuel, building material or charcoal. Ranching and agriculture drained the soil of nutrients. By the 1900s, trawlers were devastating fish populations and a virus had killed the oyster beds. Nowadays, mule deer, turkey vultures and sheep roam through the mesquite and cactus of a desert landscape.
Not surprisingly, the primary instrument of regeneration for Loreto Bay is water. Of the 8,000 acres, 5,000 will remain a natural preserve. Some 25 hectares (about 62 acres) of estuaries are being carved out and planted with mangrove forests, which, points out the company’s Debra Stevens, will both revitalize spawning grounds for the Sea of Cortés and create more local industry. “Every hectare of mangrove forest produces one ton of marketable fish,” she explains, “so it is ecologically as well as economically sustainable.” Constructing borders and gavions (small, dam-like structures) will help restore El Tular and El Zacatal by capturing more rainwater and slowing down the flow from higher altitudes, thus diverting runoff to restock the aquifer. Paspallum grass will carpet the golf course, its high saline tolerance allowing it to be maintained with brackish water. And by 2007, a sewage system will recycle cleaned water for irrigation systems and toilet flushing.But the folks developing Loreto Bay’s sustainability initiatives don’t just have water on the brain. A 20-megawatt wind farm (constructed with the capability to expand to 60) is scheduled for completion by 2008. Yet the villages will require only between six and 12 megawatts at any one time, so surplus power will be sold to other BCS municipalities. Not only will this bring in revenue, it will also help reduce diesel-generated power—with its attendant greenhouse gas emissions—throughout the Baja Peninsula.
The densest development will be between the highway and the sea, with additional clusters of homes in the foothills. Plans call for various pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly villages, all built in Spanish colonial style using earth block (a kind of adobe), which absorbs and transmits temperature changes slowly, requiring less air-conditioning. “It’s all about health issues, breathable walls and sustainability,” says Jim Hallock, whose title is (really) director of earth block operations.
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Photograph by Werner Segarra. (Click image to enlarge)What wood is used will be Forest Stewardship Council–certified Bolivian cedar and alder, and urea-formaldehyde-free Columbian birch plywood. For the exterior, Veniot is working on developing lime-based plaster tinted with customized colors that will not release volatile organic compounds (in the meantime, low-VOC latex paint is the solution). And by the way, Stevens observes that “to our knowledge, this is the only construction site in Mexico to separate recyclables.”
Since the aim is to work in concert with nature and the local culture, this is obviously not the place to build your modernist glass box on 30 acres. Lot size is limited, with maximum custom homes currently measuring around 6,000 square feet. You are welcome to use your own architect, but Loreto Bay Company has various local architects they can also recommend.
There is much more: an organic farm (already producing pumpkins, radishes, tomatoes, spinach, beets, chard, cabbage, lettuces, beans and peas, and donating surplus to local charitable agencies); a native plant rescue and replanting program; an affordable housing partnership for staff; above-average wages for Mexican workers; a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system and sponsorship of the Mexican Green Building Council—the list goes on and on. One percent of sales and resales goes to the Loreto Bay Foundation, which awards grants for local healthcare, education, recreation, job training and other community-based programs. A special fund is raising $800,000 for a medical services facility that broke ground last year and will be operational in mid-2007.
Absolutely nothing is overlooked here. All planning takes the whole picture—including the native citizenry—into account. Even that soil-enriching soap Veniot is investigating: “It would be great if it created work for Loretanos who could harvest the plants and extract those materials we need.” One suspects Veniot speaks for everyone involved with the Loreto Bay Company when he says, “Every day is exciting.”