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It may resemble a grass-covered spaceship that landed in a west London field, but a developer believes a proposed townhouse project is the future of home construction.

Eve Park at 1395 Riverbend Rd. now has the green light from London city hall. The 80-unit project in Sifton’s West 5 development will feature an earth- and skylight-covered roof that curves to the ground, giving it an other worldly appearance.

Its futuristic design also extends to a unique mechanical lift parking garage with 84 spaces. The tower stacks vehicles in a lift system, which brings them to ground level for drivers. The tower design reduces the footprint of the building. It will include electric vehicle charging stations.

“We are so excited. We have been watching this area for a while,” and the time is right to build, said Ashley Hammerbacher, Eve Park project lead for developer s2e Technologies, which has its Canadian office in St. Jacobs.

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A sizable federal investment will see the province’s first net-zero community — one that produces as much energy it consumes — receive an automatic valet system for electric vehicles, London West MP Kate Young announced Wednesday.

St. Jacobs-based smart community developer s2e Technologies is receiving $2.4 million from Ottawa to test a parking system that will automatically park and deliver shared electric vehicles to residents of West 5, a Sifton Proprieties neighbourhood in northwest London.

National Resources Canada has provided $11.14 million in funding for five clean energy projects in London this year — four of which received funding in the last 2½ months.

In all of 2018, the federal department provided $1.05 million in funding to just two London-area projects.

“By investing in state-of-the-art technology like autonomous vehicles, we’re ensuring Canada is at the forefront of the latest automotive innovations,” Young said, adding technological infrastructure “ensures our transition toward a low-carbon economy.”

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Eve Park looks like something out of a science-fiction film from the 1970s.

The community — part of the Sifton Properties West 5 project, billed as a village within the Forest City for the ecologically-minded and want to help fight climate change by reducing their carbon footprint — is designed to be built on a series of ringed condo neighbourhoods that blend into the natural environment.

The company behind Eve Park, S2E Technologies, says the sustainable development won’t be just a place to live, but a way to live, too. This means it will include such features as a garage where autonomous electric cars can be shared by residents, as well as solar panels galore.

“We’d really like to make a difference and save the world,” said S2E’s co-founder and CEO Milfred Hammerbacher. “I think it’ll be a great opportunity for London.”

“Eve Park is the first neighbourhood of its kind,” S2E says on its website. “It marks a reset in the relationship between people and automobiles, and between automobiles and living spaces.”