Springdale Peak

They called it Springdale Peak, a gated community far from civilization deep in the countryside. Springdale had a unique set of rules for anyone to move in, as stated in their official charter:

1.) All residents need to be between the ages of 18 to 55. This includes children in families.
2.) All residents need to be in peak mental and physical health and must maintain both.
3.) All residents need to have an adventurous personality and high self-esteem, as determined by the town council.
4.) All residents must be free of convictions of criminal behavior, particularly sexual offenses.
5.) All residents must remain within the confines of the community for three weeks before resuming their normal schedule.
6.) All applicants will meet with the town council prior to the final decision concerning their entry and, if accepted, the new resident(s) must move in no later than two weeks after receiving the acceptance letter. New residents will be given a questionnaire upon entry, to be completed in full and returned to the city hall one week before the move in date.

If these requirements are met, the person, couple, or family could move in free of charge. No rent, no taxes, no home owner's association dues, nothing of the sort. All amenities and services were provided gratis as well, including electricity, water, heating, gas, food, and public transportation. The houses were spacious two stories, built to near-futuristic standards. Kitchens had self-cleaning appliances, robotic vacuums plied the hardwood and carpeted floors, computer systems remotely controlled the environments at voice command, windows pressed by ultra-clear polymers with hermetically sealing weatherstripping, frames built of high strength alloys resistant to any kind of onslaught nature could throw at it. Anything other kind of specialized equipment could be provided free as well, from the latest computers to something for the bedroom. Those who settled in couldn't believe their luck at such luxury.

Among those accepted however, some would begin to wonder about the reasoning behind Springdale after completing their questionnaires. Many of the questions would about a person's sexual fetishes, favorite sexual activities and positions, and turn-ons. This obviously jarred many, and occasionally new residents would rescind their citizenship and leave. The media had a fun time with them when they leaked information on the questionnaires, and talk of a government investigation even made the round. Nothing came of this though, and that information faded into a quirk of pop culture knowledge. Residents who remained with piqued curiosity about those weird questions received no meaningful explanations from the town council, and usually after the first week, most would forget about it all and any other worries.

However, the people who were turned away, and so were able to gain a glimpse of Springdale from within when they had their town council meeting, noted many bizarre aspects. They were told that new residents were accepted in batches of a few hundred at a time, which wasn't hard given a long waiting list, and that they were to occupy a specified block of houses somewhere in the community. All public transport, from buses to the small metro, was automated. No police cars or fire stations were seen, and after asking, they were told that emergencies were generally handled by the systems within the houses. Any criminal behavior whatsoever prompted immediate eviction of the person and their family if they had any. No businesses operated within the town, and only one nondescript grocery and gas station serviced Springdale, they too being completely automated. In fact, no one ever remembered any town official or civil servant anywhere, save the town council who only seemed to exist within the city hall. Only resident walked the streets, they were told by the council, and after pressed for more information, they called it an experimental community, a sort of prototype for a world of tomorrow, where people can live in peace and security with as little expended effort as possible.

Most usually laughed this off as a massive joke, and those rejected from Springdale declared, in hindsight, that it really was too good to be true. Still, the information they brought back with them fueled numerous rumors behind the community. Some called it a high-end sex cult masquerading as a community where those who moved in were brainwashed into doing depraved acts, given the required list of fetishes that residents needed to provide on the questionnaires. Others called it a strange psychological experiment to test people's limits in various ways, hence the absence of city officials and the need for everyone to be as fit as possible. Since these ideas were floated in the same forums that discussed alien lizards controlling the planet however, none were taken seriously, and the media, if they even regarded it seriously at all, cast Springdale Peak into the same bin as other failed futuristic utopias.

How ironic then that they were, effectively, right.