Over the last several months, we’ve received some pointed criticism about the environmental ethics of Estancia Natura—most of it from people who have never visited Spirit Mountain, never studied the site, and (to be blunt) have not taken the time to understand what we’ve actually done here.

I’m not offended by environmental concern. I welcome it. If you care about watersheds, forests, wildlife habitat, and the long-term health of Jarabacoa’s high mountain ecosystems, you are speaking my language.

What I am unwilling to accept is the lazy assumption that every development is automatically “destructive,” and that those of us who choose to build carefully in sensitive places must be either naïve or dishonest. That mindset is not environmental protection. It’s cynicism. And cynicism has never restored a watershed, planted a forest, or improved a community.

So let’s do this the right way: with a clear narrative, verifiable facts, and a direct invitation to come see for yourself.

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1) Start With the Actual History: This Property Was Restored, Not “Exploited”

Spirit Mountain did not begin as a polished, curated eco-dream. When we stepped into this story in 2003, we were staring at a rugged, previously degraded mountain system that had taken a severe hit from Hurricane Georges in 1998. (Estancia Natura)

The farm is 335 acres—roughly 1,350,000 square meters—of steep, complex, high mountain terrain. (Estancia Natura)

And before we ever talked about building A-Frames or ridge homes, we spent years doing the unglamorous, slow, expensive work of restoration. Spirit Mountain has been reforested with over 100,000 trees since 2003, and we are still planting. (Estancia Natura)

That reforestation is not decorative landscaping. It is an agroforestry system—coffee under shade canopy—designed to rebuild soils, stabilize slopes, protect water resources, and improve habitat. (Estancia Natura)

If someone wants to accuse us of being “anti-environment,” they have to reconcile that accusation with two decades of forest work that the public can see, walk through, and measure.

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2) The Central Design Principle: Low Density, Small Footprint, Big Protection

One of the most important facts in this conversation is not architectural. It’s mathematical:

• The total area planned for development is approximately 50 acres, or roughly 15% of the farm. (Estancia Natura)
• The remaining ~85% is set aside as protected green space and ongoing coffee/forest management. (Estancia Natura)
• Even inside the “developed” 50 acres, the plan is that less than 5% of that area will actually be built upon, leaving the overwhelming majority as open space. (Estancia Natura)

This is not “eco-washing.” This is the opposite of the typical mountain development model.

The A-Frame Club is explicitly limited to a maximum of 36 units, and those units are intentionally clustered in small communities of 4 to 5 units scattered throughout the farm—rather than concentrated into a dense village or resort block. (Estancia Natura)

And these are not oversized mountain houses pretending to be “eco.” The A-Frame models were designed to be compact and efficient (notably 73 m² and 127 m² in an earlier offering), with the intent to eliminate waste, reduce operational loads, and keep the architecture subordinate to the landscape. (Estancia Natura)

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3) Off-Grid Is Not a Slogan Here. It’s Infrastructure.

“Off-grid” gets thrown around casually online. At Spirit Mountain, it means we design for reality:

Power: The electrical strategy is based on photovoltaic generation and storage, with a hybrid approach:

• For A-Frame “Hives,” a shared PV array is sized to the cluster’s diversified load, while each unit has its own battery bank and inverter for resilience and right-sizing. The system is modular and expandable over time. (Estancia Natura)
• For ridge homes (“The Reserve”), PV + storage is tailored to each home’s envelope and load profile, with staged expansion planning for critical circuits. (Estancia Natura)

Water: We are not “winging it” with water in a mountain ecosystem. The potable water system described publicly includes:

• Multiple spring taps feeding a 20,000-gallon cistern, with solar powering the pump
• Pumping to summit tanks and gravity-fed distribution to homes (Estancia Natura)

That is the kind of infrastructure you build when you intend to operate responsibly for decades—not when you’re trying to flip lots fast.

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4) Roads and Erosion: Mountain Design Is Either Disciplined, or It’s Destructive

If you want to damage a mountain watershed, you don’t start with buildings. You start with roads.

Any serious mountain development must treat drainage, slope stability, and erosion control as core design disciplines. Modern best practice in site design increasingly emphasizes Low Impact Development (LID)—maintaining or restoring watershed function by controlling runoff where it is generated, combining conservation practices with distributed source controls. (Whole Building Design Guide)

Our road work is being executed as a long-term system, with a strong emphasis on infrastructure sequencing, drainage control, and operational maintenance planning as the network grows. (Estancia Natura)

If you’re an environmental critic who wants to talk erosion, good. Let’s talk erosion—on-site, in the rain, at the culverts, at the slope transitions, at the outfalls. That’s where real stewardship is proven.

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5) Environmental Stewardship Requires Governance, Not Just Good Intentions

A project is only as “sustainable” as its ability to stay disciplined after the first generation of owners shows up.

That is why Estancia Natura is structured around enforceable governance: a HOA/CC&Rs framework with a defined dues model (Base + Lot Size + Bedrooms), defined late charges, lien rights, and the ability to suspend certain services or participation if an owner refuses to comply. (Estancia Natura)

You may not like rules. But if you truly care about environmental outcomes, you should love them—because ruleless communities drift, and drift is how mountain ecosystems get slowly degraded one “small exception” at a time.

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6) Permitting, Ethics, and the Hard Way

We did not “shortcut” our way into approvals.

As described in our public writing, Estancia Natura pursued an extensive environmental permitting process including an 18-month environmental impact study and submission of a 300+ page report to the Ministry of the Environment, resulting in an Environmental License in August 2023. (Estancia Natura)

And after that, Phase I was formally approved at a public hearing in February 2025. (Spirit Mountain Coffee) and Phase II (the rest of the project) was approved in December of the same year, as a result of our dedicated adherence to our proposed plan of development.

If you know anything about permitting dynamics in the Dominican Republic, you know that doing things “by the book” can be slower, more expensive, and occasionally infuriating. We chose that route anyway, because environmental stewardship without ethical stewardship is hypocrisy.

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7) The Bigger Picture: Sustainable Tourism Must Benefit the Host Community

Sustainable tourism is not just about minimizing harm. It is also about maximizing long-term benefit for host communities and ecosystems.

UN Tourism defines sustainable tourism as taking full account of economic, social, and environmental impacts while addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment, and host communities. (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)
Likewise, the GSTC frames sustainable tourism around recognizing impacts (positive and negative) and actively minimizing the negatives while maximizing the positives. (GSTC)

That is exactly the philosophy we are pursuing: low-density eco-hospitality tied to regenerative agriculture, long-term operational management, and an open-door posture toward education, visitation, and transparency.

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8) A Clear Invitation (and a Clear Line)

We are not claiming perfection. We will make mistakes. We will adjust. We will learn. That’s part of doing hard things in hard terrain.

But we are also not going to accept bad-faith criticism from people who refuse to engage facts.

So here is the invitation—and it is sincere:

Come visit Spirit Mountain. Walk the trails. Ask questions. Look at the roads, the water infrastructure, the forest canopy, the coffee system, and the building footprints. The Day Pass is free. (Spirit Mountain Coffee)

If you care deeply about your neighbor and you care deeply about creation, you are most likely our people.

And if you come with criticism that is grounded, specific, and offered in good faith—then good. Bring it. We will listen. We will respond with facts. And where we can improve, we will.

That is what stewardship looks like.

Your chief bean counter and tree hugger,