Roadmap — Alpine Innovation Village

An honest note. Alpine Innovation Village is a concept and a pitch — a vision we are developing in the open, not a built place. No units have been constructed, no funding has been raised, no permits have been filed and no tenants have been housed here. Prices, tiers and timelines on this site are illustrative planning figures, not offers. The facts we cite about housing, construction and real precedents are real and sourced.

An honest, phased plan

We are at the very beginning — the concept phase. Nothing below is finished, funded or permitted. This roadmap describes the order we believe things must happen, and it is deliberately conservative: community first, buildings last.

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Phase 0 — Concept & community (now)

Publish the vision in the open (this site). Gather the people it should serve, listen, and pressure-test the idea. Grow a mailing list and an events cadence out of Tiny Hacker House’s decade of community-building. Deliverable: a clear, criticized, improved concept.

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Phase 1 — Site, partners & feasibility

Identify candidate land, test what zoning and utilities allow, and line up building, design and funding partners. Learn from the Alpine Village pilot in Del Valle. Deliverable: a feasible, costed plan for a real parcel — or the honesty to say it does not pencil.

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Phase 2 — Pilot units & the commons

Build a small first cluster: a handful of live-work homes plus the core shared commons. Prove the construction cost, the affordability math and the community agreement at small scale before scaling. Deliverable: real residents making things, at a rent that clears the 30% line.

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Phase 3 — The village & the model

Grow to a full village and, more importantly, document the model so it can be repeated elsewhere. The output is not just one place; it is a template for affordable innovation villages. Deliverable: a working village and a playbook.

What has to be true at each gate

We would only move forward when the honest answer is yes:

Phase 0 → 1: Does a real community want this, and can we articulate exactly whom it serves?
Phase 1 → 2: Is there a site where the zoning, utilities and financing actually work — and does the per-home cost hit an affordable rent?
Phase 2 → 3: At small scale, did the affordability, the construction and the community agreement all hold up in reality, not just on paper?

If a gate’s answer is no, that is a finding, not a failure — and we will say so publicly. That is what “a concept in the open” means.

Risks we are watching

An honest roadmap names what could stop it. These are the risks we take seriously, in roughly the order they threaten the project:

Land and zoning. A parcel that permits this density and this mix of living and working uses, at a price that still pencils, is the hardest single thing to find in Austin. It may not exist where we want it.
The cost gap. Container and small-home construction is only cheaper when kept disciplined. If per-home costs creep, the affordable rent target slips out of reach — and we would rather stop than quietly raise the rent.
Financing without distortion. Money that demands market-rate returns can quietly turn an affordable village into an unaffordable one. The funding structure has to protect the mission.
Community, not just buildings. A village can be built and still fail to cohere. The community agreement and the events culture matter as much as the foundations.

How we will stay transparent

Because this is a concept in the open, we will publish what we learn — including the parts that do not work. Cost findings, site dead-ends and gate decisions will be written down here rather than buried. If Alpine Innovation Village never gets built, the most valuable thing it can leave behind is an honest, public record of why, so the next people to try are smarter than we were.

Background: the build model · the affordability case · FAQ.

Help us clear the first gate

Phase 0 is about people, not buildings. If this village should exist — and especially who it should serve — tell us.

Back the concept Read the vision