Zoom in to explore the prospective site plan of Sonder Hollow, a conscious community forming on Meadows Town Road outside Marshall, NC. Click any homesite to see details.
Sonder Hollow is a conscious community of privately owned homes on privately owned land, wrapped around shared infrastructure, shared culture, and shared purpose. You own your home and your acre. Together, we own the wells, the roads, the fiber, the barn, the gardens, the pond, and the way we make decisions.
Read our Charter →
everything below paraphrases or quotes our governing documents directly, with links to the exact section
Thirteen deeded homesites of one to three acres. The community holds a Right of First Refusal to match any selling price if you decide to move.
Your land buy includes a private paved road, buried power and fiber, stormwater systems, barn with wood and metal shops, gym and movement studio, community garden, orchard, and a common house with a commercial kitchen. Every homesite keeps its own dedicated well.
We use sociocracy to make decisions together. Small, opt-in Councils with real domains, consent-based policy, and supermajority votes only for the things that touch every wallet.
This land is for those who want to live on purpose: to cultivate food, build meaningful lives, raise families, make art, and support each other — all while being good neighbors.
We’re building a place for people who believe that freedom and responsibility belong together. That community isn’t built through rules, but through relationship.
We trust that adults, given transparency and shared purpose, can largely self-govern.
We honor initiative, autonomy, and repair.
We assume good intent, tell the truth, and clean up our messes.
Straight from the Playbook: “A proposal becomes policy when no one has a reasoned objection tied to the circle's aim and domain” — consent for policies, the advice process for daily operations, supermajority votes “when choices affect every owner's wallet or title,” and consensus “reserved for charter-level decisions where unresolved dissent would poison the well.”
Click a circle to see what it owns. The decision wizard below runs the Playbook's actual trigger rules.
Click any circle on the map.
The short version of the rules that shape daily life. Each links to the governing document — read the full section before relying on any summary.
From the Declaration: “Open Carry is prohibited everywhere on Common Area and in, upon, or within any Common Facilities, at all times, by any person” — paired with an explicit “No Firearm Registry” clause (the HOA never collects serial numbers or inventories) and a Designated Firearm Responder procedure for genuine emergencies.
The Declaration defines Common Facilities as “a common house, workshop, gym, ponds, trails… agricultural infrastructure” held by the Association. Participation programs (garden plots, woodshop access, common-space use) are opt-in — join what you'll use, with access rules set by the responsible circle.
From the Declaration: quiet hours run “11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.” with a plainly-audible-indoors sound standard; “the Events Circle may grant exceptions” for approved gatherings, and “event parking plans are required for large events.”
From the Declaration: renting is “a revocable privilege… continuously conditioned upon compliance” with the community's Rental Program — registration, caps, guest screening, waivers, quiet hours — with suspension and a defined cure path for violations. STRs are possible here, on the community's terms.
The Declaration establishes the Architectural Control framework, and the Playbook runs it day to day: “advice for minor items; consent for moderate; Assembly 2/3 for variances affecting common interests.”
A dedicated dispute-resolution pathway in the Declaration, plus the Playbook's Conflict & Care circle offering “voluntary mediation, restorative circles, and conflict education” that “does not enforce or levy penalties” — care and enforcement deliberately separated.
Full library: Charter · Declaration, Bylaws & Covenants (working draft with counsel) · Governance Playbook · Preliminary Site Plan by Edsel Engineering, PLLC (shown in the 3D model above). Summaries are conveniences, not the governing text.
Most developments are built by developers who leave. Sonder Hollow is being built by people who organize humans for a living — and who are staying.
Wyatt Edsel, PE — civil engineering & site planning, Black Mountain NC.
Rob Dull, PLA — landscape architecture & master planning, Asheville NC.
Grading by Clifton Hamlin; wells by Ferguson Well; soil science by Steve Chambers; power & fiber with French Broad EMC.
Sonder Hollow is starting a public conversation about what it actually takes to build a resilient community — and everyone's invited. This is the first of an ongoing speaker series meant to educate, connect, and contribute to the regional dialogue on how we might change the way we build a village.
Each gathering brings a guest speaker to share hard-won knowledge on one facet of building well together. Part of every evening is about Sonder Hollow itself — how a conscious community actually comes together on the land — and part is bigger than us: the craft, policy, and practice of resilient community anywhere in our region.
We're building a village as a village — in the open, learning out loud, and inviting our neighbors to learn alongside us.
… and more, as the series grows.
Saturday, October 10, 2026 · 5–7 p.m. · Blank Space, 701 Haywood Rd, Asheville
An evening of introduction: a presentation on the project, then talks and a Q&A with guests who build and study community. Free to attend — even more free if you bring a friend.
Guest speakersCJ O’Reilly (Weave the People) · Steve Torma (The REAL Center, Earthaven Ecovillage)
RSVP on FacebookWe're planning the next one. Get invitations by email and you'll hear about it first.
Want to speak, or suggest a speaker? Email team@sonderhollow.org.
Sonder Hollow is a prospective development still moving through approvals. This page exists to share as much as we can, as openly as we can, about where the project is headed — not to sell you anything today.
These dates assume county approvals and the weather cooperate — a prospective development moves at the pace of its permits. We keep this page current as each milestone lands.
We publish our development budget because trust is infrastructure too. These are the current contractor quotes and engineering estimates behind Sonder Hollow — the real cost of turning 28 raw acres into a place you can build a life.
Land acquisition plus every road, well, wire, and shared building — before a single home goes up.
Figures are current quotes and estimates (marked EST) from our contractors, August 2026. They will move as bids finalize. Optional items (stormwater pond) shown included.
We don't price lots by view alone. Each homesite carries different real development costs — and those costs, not mystique, are the primary basis of pricing differences:
| Factor | Range across lots |
|---|---|
| Driveway length to road | 90–490 ft |
| Average grade of lot | 33–46% |
| Gentlest buildable bench | 16–31% |
| Septic siting & soil | Per-lot soil analysis |
| Grading for the pad | Scales with slope |
Click any lot in the 3D model to see its numbers. Detailed per-lot pricing will be shared with interested households once lots open for pre-market sale (see Status).
Road maintenance and plowing, shared well upkeep, commons insurance and utilities, reserve contributions set by a published reserve study — approved by a 3/4 vote of owners, every year, in the open.
Most people have never financed a custom build. It's more approachable than it looks — here is the honest version of how it works in Madison County, and who can help.
0. Start here — register interest & get pre-qualified. Lots aren't for sale yet. Right now the moves are to join the interest list and, when you're ready, talk to one of the lenders below about pre-qualification — so you're set the moment lots open for pre-market sale.
1. Secure your lot. Once lots open, purchases can be cash or land-loan financed; the lot becomes your equity in the construction loan.
2. Design to the covenants. Steel-framed, steel-roofed, highly insulated — our Architectural Review Circle reviews for resilience and fit, not conformity.
3. Permits & soil. Septic permit via county Environmental Health (soil work by our soil scientist), well allocation from the shared system, building permit from Madison County.
4. Construction-to-permanent loan. One closing; the loan pays your builder in draws, then converts to a normal mortgage at completion.
5. Build with people we trust. Our graded roads, staked corners, and local trade relationships shorten your critical path.
| Civil engineering | Edsel Engineering, PLLC · Black Mountain |
| Grading & site work | Clifton D. Hamlin Grading · Mars Hill (unlimited NC GC license, grading since 1986) |
| Wells | Ferguson's Well & Pump · Leicester, drilling since 1978 |
| Landscape architecture | Find The Line Studios · Rob Dull, PLA, Asheville |
| Septic & soil | Steve Chambers, licensed soil scientist |
| Power & fiber | French Broad EMC |
Builders serving WNC with strong reputations in the construction styles Sonder Hollow calls for. We have no financial relationship with any of them — do your own diligence.
| Red Shed Woodworks & Construction | Marshall · the most local custom-home GC, 20+ Madison County builds |
| Barn Country USA | Barndominium specialist · engineered turnkey barndos, 1,200+ projects since 1989 |
| 1845 Barndominiums | Barndominium builder serving all of NC · custom plans, turnkey builds, steel shells or kit packages, 20+ years |
| Steel Root Builders | Asheville · award-winning modern sustainable + steel-framed homes |
| Morton Buildings (Fletcher) | Post-frame steel homes & shops · national leader, office 30 min away |
| Sineath Construction | Weaverville · 3rd-generation custom builder, HBA Builder of the Year, GreenBuilt-certified |
| JAG Construction | Asheville · value-priced high-performance green homes, 200+ built |
Simple version: your land + build price, your down payment, today's average rate — your monthly payment. Rates refresh weekly from the Freddie Mac national survey.
Building instead of buying finished? A construction-to-permanent loan carries the build (interest-only on drawn funds) then becomes exactly this mortgage — the lenders below walk you through it free.
What it roughly costs to make a mountain lot build-ready — driveway, pad grading, septic, well hookup, clearing — using each lot's real slope and distance to the lane.
Western North Carolina contractor figures (not national averages), scaled by each lot's average grade — rough planning numbers, not bids. Each homesite's dedicated well is included in the lot price, so it doesn't appear here. Real numbers come from soil work and contractor quotes — driveway, grading, and septic are exactly the factors that set final lot pricing.
Local and regional lenders offering true construction-to-permanent loans in WNC. A first conversation with a loan officer costs nothing.
| Telco Community CU | Asheville credit union · one loan from lot through completed build |
| GoPrime Mortgage | West Asheville · one-time-close construction-to-perm, flexible draws |
| Fairway — The Asheville Team | Single-close construction loan, interest-only during the build · 4.9-star team |
| First Bank | NC community bank · one closing, fixed rate, no prepayment penalty |
Listed for convenience, not endorsement — we receive nothing from any lender. Not financial advice.
Construction-to-perm — the default for most owner-builders with strong credit.
HELOC / equity bridge — owners selling elsewhere often bridge the build from existing equity, then refinance.
Cash build, finance later — some owners build outright and place a mortgage after completion at better terms.
Phased builds — a right-sized first structure now, expansion later. Our covenants are written to allow it gracefully.
An occasional letter as the land takes shape — road progress, homesite news, gatherings on the mountain. No noise, unsubscribe anytime.
Our first gathering — a Sonder Hollow introduction with guest talks on community-building — is Saturday, Oct 10, 5–7 p.m. in Asheville. Free and open to all. RSVP, or get invitations by email.