Vast field of purple wildflowers with a hill in the background under a blue sky.

Riverbed Ranch Homesteading Community

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Ecological
  • Town/Small City

Founding year

  • 2017

What we do

We are creating a self-reliance community where families can extract themselves from being dependent on the power grid, gas company, city water, and grocery stores in the city. This is not a political or religious statement, it’s an agricultural cooperative created for the benefit of its members.
We are building 250 family online-but-off-grid, self-reliance community as an agricultural co-op under Title 3 of the Utah Code. Every 2-acre lot comes with at least 4 acre feet of water shares (very important in the dry Western US!).
There is no HOA to tell you what you can and can’t do with your 2 acre paradise. However, since this IS an agricultural co-op, each shareholder…
A) agrees to build an off-grid home, well, a shop, barn, garden and greenhouse,
B) is required to engage in some form of pesticide-free agriculture – anything from raising worms to horses to fruits and veggies.
C) can eventually sell their surplus produce through the co-op which will try to get an account with Associated Foods or the like.
D) can sell products or services of their home-based businesses.
E) can save around 20-30% on the cost of building their home, barn and greenhouse through bulk purchasing arranged by co-op members.
Why do developers never create such cooperative communities like this? Because there’s no profit in it! This is a non-profit agricultural co-op, created under Utah law for the benefit of the shareholders.

Our Mission

Our mission is to make it as inexpensive as reasonably possible for a family to leave the lifestyle of dependencies in the city and transition comfortably to a country culture of cooperation and self-reliance, debt-free and surrounded by other self-reliant families.

  • Purpose
  • Ecological
  • Community type
  • Cohousing
  • Ecovillage
  • Intentional Neighborhoods
  • Sustainability practices
  • Renewable energy systems
  • Activities
  • Education
  • Experiences
  • Others

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2017
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2020
  • Started living together
  • 79 Total members
  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
149

How to join

1. Watch our update videos to see that we’re really doing it! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCefJX23MKjnPm2Ta65e9V4Q/videos
2. Watch our 1st and 2nd introductory videos – https://OSRcommunity.com/introduction-utah/
3. Attend a Q&A zoom call – https://www.eventbrite.com/o/academy-of-self-reliance-27972265747
4. Tour Riverbed Ranch – https://www.eventbrite.com/o/academy-of-self-reliance-27972265747
5. Meet with our board to answer any remaining questions, review the shareholder application, and pay for your share in the co-op ($30,000).
6. Assuming the board of directors finds that you are serious about putting in the work to becoming self-reliant, and you have the resources to build out your 2.0 to 2.4 acre homestead (at least $235,000), your application will be approved.
7. Pick your lot!

Basic expectations or agreements for members

To tour the Riverbed Ranch property, home of the Utah OSR Land Co-op, just browse to https://www.eventbrite.com/o/riverbed-ranch-27972265747

Primary decision-making authority

  • Single Leader or Founding Couple

One person or partnership has ultimate authority.

Decision-making process

  • Majority Vote

More than 50% agreement needed.

Governance structure

  • Representative/Democratic

Members elect leaders who make decisions within defined roles.

Conflict resolution approach

Specifically, like typical cooperatives, we are governed by a board of elected representatives from among our shareholders. One share = one vote, and one adult can only own one share. This prevents any single person or company from wresting control of the co-op from the shareholders.
There is a movement among some of our shareholders to explore adopting Sociocracy, as we don’t like the fact that majority rule = minority loses.

Economic model

  • Independent Finances

Members maintain separate personal finances with minimal sharing.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • There is a one-time fee, investment, or share purchase to join the community separate from accessing housing
  • Members need to pay fees, dues, or similar to live there on a per month or per year basis
  • Members typically need to have their own job or other personal source of income to cover their expenses while living in the community?

Additional economic information

Join fee: $30000
Regular fees: $0
Our goal is to help people get out of a lifestyle of dependencies in the city. This includes getting out of debt. You’re not truly self-reliant if the bank can take away your home! Each household will want to generate revenue to sustain itself, through traditional employment, and/or selling goods and services provided to customers both within and without the community. Also, the co-op itself hopes to eventually produce revenue through various agricultural projects. It is hoped (but not guaranteed) that these revenue-generation projects will eventually replace the need for a monthly maintenance fee.

Shared resources and amenities that are accessible to everyone in the community

Library, Workshop, Hot tub or hot springs, Large Scale Kitchen, Tractor & Farm Equipment, Fire pit, Swingsets & play areas

Frequency of communal meals

  • 1-3 times per month

Significant food acquisition practices

  • Locally sourced

Community activities and engagement

  • Transition Town (post-petroleum and off-grid communities.)
  • School, Educational Institute or Experience
  • Volunteer, Internship, or Apprenticeship, or WWOOF’ing
  • Festivals, Conferences, Events

Substance use culture

  • Substance use occurs primarily at celebrations or ceremonies
  • Religions
  • Christian
  • Muslim
  • Hindu

Gender composition

  • Roughly balanced (no group over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Family-focused (many children and parents)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • By a Land Trust, Home Owners Association, or corporation

Setting

  • Town/Small City

Smaller municipalities with local services but rural character.

Community type

  • Cohousing

    Private homes with shared common facilities, designed for neighborly
    interaction while maintaining independence.

  • Ecovillage

    Integrated communities designed around ecological principles with sustainable living practices.

  • Intentional Neighborhoods

    Geographically close groups of independently-owned homes whose residents actively cultivate community relationships and shared values.

Sustainability approach

  • Renewable energy systems

Self-produced energy

  • 33 - 66%

Energy sources used

  • Wind
  • Photovoltaic Solar

Self-produced food

  • Up to 33%

Local, organic, or fair trade food

  • Over 66%

Food systems

  • Greenhouse / aquaponics
  • Land area size
    1245 acres

Guest Book

Written reviews are available for plus members. Click here to upgrade.

Location

  • Utah, United States

Riverbed Ranch Homesteading Community

Needs and Offers

Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace

  • Promoted
Offer
  • Real Estate For Sale
1 week ago

Beautiful 3+ Bed, 2.5 Bath Townhome in Established West Emerald CoHousing, Seattle

A rare home is available at West Emerald Cohousing, an established all-ages intentional community in West Seattle. For those considering a move to the Pacific Northwest—or hoping to join a mature community rather than one still in the forming stages—West Emerald offers decades of community life, beautiful gardens, shared resources and a peaceful setting within the city in a convenient location since 1999. This unit has a unique floor plan that is ideal for co-buying, co-living, or for one household. The home itself offers a flexible 3+ bedroom, 2.5 bath layout: Garden-level room with a separate exterior entrance and half bath—ideal for a home office, studio, guest space or client-facing business Main-level bedroom and full bath, laundry, making one-level living possible Open great room with large windows overlooking gardens filled with birdsong Well-designed kitchen with generous storage and pantry Two additional light-filled spacious bedrooms and a full bath upstairs Thoughtfully maintained and updated Located at the end of a common pathway for added privacy and garden views, Just feet from parking, which is out of view West Emerald community amenities include: Common House with gathering and activity spaces Community meals and events Mature gardens and shared outdoor spaces Workshop/maker spaces and bike barn Exercise room EV charging opportunity Excellent Metro access to Downtown Seattle just minutes away Nestled into a dell, it’s Seattle’s best-kept secret South Seattle College and lifelong learning, NW Wine Academy, the Seattle Chinese Garden are nearby, with easy access to Alki Beach, Lincoln Park, magnet schools, ferries, and the shops and restaurants of the West Seattle Junction. 6000 17th Ave SW, Seattle, WA Is a wonderful opportunity to have your own comfortable, private home while becoming part of a vibrant and well-established Seattle all-ages cohousing community. For more information contact the friendly Realtor at 206-579-9066, or at ki**********@**********te.com who will be happy to meet you there or do a facetime tour.
  • Promoted
Offer
  • Communities with Openings
3 months ago

Do you feel called to help co-create a small, newly forming eco-spiritual community?

Old structures are crumbling. New ways of living are calling. We are answering that call. Wild Grace is an eco-spiritual community located in the Sierra foothills 30 minutes from Grass Valley, California. We recently completed new homes for those who feel called to our vision. Currently there are four of us living on this sacred 80 acres of land although we are a hub for an expanded neighborhood community. Many join us weekly for potlucks, expressive dance, Qi Gong, monthly musical gatherings, and seasonal celebrations in our temple, as well as tending to our orchard. We are excited to welcome others to join us on the land who are dedicating their lives to spiritual growth and ready to live in a more focused and intimate heart-centered lifestyle. Might that be you or someone you know? The fundamentals are simple. Spirit. We listen personally and collectively together most mornings, usually starting with a musical offering, a prayer, or a short reading, followed by about 40 minutes of what we call “sacred silence.” Heart Circles. About once a week we gather to share and listen. We are informed by authentic and compassionate communication practices. Nature. The land itself—an 80-acre oasis of field and forest perched above the wild and scenic South Yuba River—calls for our stewardship in the gardens, orchard, greenhouses, and general care. In turn, nature feeds us abundantly, both literally and spiritually. Interbeing. We join with others to share inspiration and connection as we host monthly gatherings of song, story and prayer that draws from the larger community in addition to other events we share with our closer neighbors. As we attend to these fundamentals, Grace flows to and through us—often in “Wild” or unexpected ways. Grace catalyzes through us, but is not something we possess. Because we all are connected, we feel that Grace actively transforms n
Offer
Offer
  • Professional Services
6 days ago

Community Planning, Facilitation & Coaching for Intentional Communities

Through Radicle Collective, I support intentional communities and the people within them as they navigate the practical and relational work of building life together. My work can include visioning and community planning, facilitated conversations and retreats, decision-making and governance design, conflict transformation, establishing group agreements, culture-building, and individual or group coaching. I work with communities at many stages – whether it’s a few people exploring whether to live together, a fledgling community developing its foundations, or an established community in transition or conflict. I draw from training in psychology, coaching, urban and regional planning, facilitation, Nonviolent Communication, permaculture, and related practices to approach community as a living system – one shaped by individual needs, relationships, shared structures, place, and the connections between them. Rather than bringing a single model for how community should work, I help groups understand what is happening across those different layers, surface what matters, work honestly with difference, and create structures and practices that support connection, agency, belonging, and the values that brought them together in the first place. I’m based in Berlin and available to work online or in person, depending on location and scope. I offer sliding-scale pricing and am open to creative forms of exchange where appropriate. If your community is forming, stuck, changing, or simply wants some skilled outside support for an important conversation, I’d be glad to explore what might be useful. You can learn more about my work and get in touch at radiclecollective.com.
Offer
Need
  • Communities with Openings
6 days ago

Looking for a family-friendly farm, cohousing, or intentional community

This might be a little hard to explain, but I’m going to try. I’m 28, Colombian-American, and I have a seven-year-old daughter. Our life is a little unconventional. I travel, my work is not a normal 9–5, and I’ve realized I don’t want to keep building our life around temporary housing, hired help, and having to recreate a support system everywhere we go. I keep wondering whether there is somewhere we could actually belong. Not necessarily an “intentional community” in the formal sense. It could be a farm, a group of families, cohousing, an intergenerational household, or something I don’t have the language for yet. What I want is for my daughter to grow up around people she really knows. Other children. Adults who become familiar and trusted over time. A place where people notice when someone needs help, where meals or childcare or work sometimes overlap naturally, and where community is more than everyone living near each other. And for myself, I want people I can actually think and build with. I care a lot about spirituality, inner work, land, education, caregiving, and learning how to live differently. But I also care about power and about whether the communities we create reproduce the same things we say we’re trying to get away from. I need to be around people who can acknowledge things like racism, class, gender and systemic inequality without becoming defensive or treating those conversations as inherently divisive. I’ve been developing some of my own thinking around all of this through a framework I call Conscious Colombia, Participating Wisely, and Contemporary Sādhana. A lot of it comes down to a question I keep returning to: how do we become people who can participate in community wisely, while also creating structures that remain accountable and open to correction? I don’t have a fixed location in mind and I’m not looking to rush into anything. I’m really just trying to find the people and places where this kind of life is already being attempted — imperfectly, seriously, in real life. If you’re building something like this, living in something like this, or even asking similar questions, I’d love to talk.

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