What a rollercoaster 2021 has been, and yet cohousers moved forward doing what we do…. creating community. I was excited to see more young families joining communities. In my own fifteen-year-old Nevada City Cohousing, I now have a four-month-old next door, a one-year-old across the walkway, and a new family with 1 and 3 year-old kids who just moved up from San Francisco. I was encouraged to see more people writing about the advantages of parenting in community (or rather the ongoing crazy idea of a mother doing all the work of parenting in isolating single family homes) as well as the benefits of aging in community. Why is the idea of living in community considered radical when that is the way humans have lived, raised children, and cared for elders for most of human history?
Fighting against all the single-family-home propaganda, our clients work together to find ways to support more electric cars, use solar to heat and cool their homes, have hard discussions, and support each other, demonstrating every day in small ways how we can create more resilient sustainable neighborhoods. They are well aware of their imperfections: mostly that the costs of building new housing is so far out of reach for many. I find myself often urging them to move forward with what they can without trying to solve all of the world’s problems in one small community. I continue to believe that creating working models of more environmentally and socially sustainable neighborhoods that support residents to be active in their surrounding towns and cities is one small way we can make a difference in creating a more resilient world.
With this last newsletter of the year, we’d like to share some of this year’s highlights.
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Just wanted to thank you for all your advice and guidance along the way to building our community. Mariah and I moved in on Thursday, and we love it! Kids are running around in the common areas, neighbors are sharing things, people are dropping by. It's great! We couldn’t have done it without you.
-Haystack Heights, Spokane, WA
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It is so very exciting when we get to see our clients move into their community, as the residents of Haystack Heights got to do this year. I vividly remember my first trip to meet with this group in 2017 as they contemplated whether they could build a community on a property in the heart of the older Perry District. The location was great, but what about that “haystack” of basalt rock at the edge of it? Turns out all the remaining sites in the older walkable neighborhoods of Spokane have rock. This Fall, the 39 households began moving in and hosting their first common house dinners. When one of the founders texted the following to me in September, needless to say, it made my day! (week, year).
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Heartwood Commons, Tulsa, OK |
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STARTING CONSTRUCTION
Several of our clients—Skagit Commons in Anacortes, WA (pictured on the right) and Heartwood Commons in Tulsa--started construction in 2020, and while construction timelines have gotten longer with supply chain and labor issues everywhere, they are feeling lucky to have gotten under construction before construction cost got even higher.
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Our clients who started or are close to starting construction in 2021 all had to deal with the largest construction cost increases I have ever seen. This has been painful, and lead to unexpected price increases. After all, who knew to plan for 19%+ annual increases in construction materials during a pandemic? Lumber went way up, then down, but steel is up and there is shortage of all labor. So, no, construction costs are not coming down anytime soon and it appears supply chains will continue to be an issue well into the new year. I am so impressed at how our clients dealt with these difficult times, making hard decisions and adjusting to higher prices.
It is hard to appreciate all the details that must align to get a community under construction: permits, construction loan, a minimum number of committed buyers, and a whole lot of cash in the deal (equity…typically 20 – 35% of total costs). This year, it seems that cities are slowing down the actual construction start as they sort out their own processes for issuing permits, so even after community members have jumped thru all their hoops, we find ourselves waiting for one final approval from the bank or another city staff person actually doing their job.
And so, it's a really big deal when they start actually digging dirt.
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I was most heartened when River Song started construction in September, after having been held up for seven years by unmerited neighborhood opposition. We had a local developer and construction financing lined up to start construction in 2014, when neighborhood activists (Led by someone who doesn’t even live nearby) appealed the planning approval all the way to State Land Use Court of Appeals.
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Each time they made another appeal, the court eventually threw it out but they were very successful in eating up time that nearly killed this community. If you want to know why housing costs so much, this is a good example of how hard it is to build housing even when it is designed within the allowable density, easily bikable to the heart of Eugene, and incorporating many green features. Many gave up, but a few hardy souls hung in there, rebuilding their membership, finding a new developer (Portland-based UD+P) and construction financing. It’s great to see River Song under construction on this fabulous property right next to the Williamette River. And eventually, I am confident that the neighbors will realize the community is a great for the larger neighborhood too. |
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We actually got to attend the Washington Commons Groundbreaking since it is nearby in West Sacramento. So much fun to celebrate with the community and other professionals. After a Land Acknowledgement for the Native Americans who had gathered on these banks of Sacramento River for generations, I got to introduce the community’s founder Anne Geraghty. Anne hired CoHousing Solutions when it was just her. Together we were able to identify a property and she began to build a community around it. I thought it was fabulous property the moment I saw it, but that does not mean it was easy getting others to see the potential commitment to a community that will take years to build. The community has Anne’s tenacity and determination for getting thorough those early tough years to the nearly full community they are today, and they showed their appreciation with a big bouquet of flowers.
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ADAMS CREEK, HOOD RIVER, OR Ground breaking ceremony. Little native trees in the construction zone were transplanted to pots for safe keeping until move-in. Children added soil from the land, water from the creek, and rock with names of indigenous tribes in the pots. Everyone wrote wishes and gratitudes on cards hung from the tree branches. Beautiful music by our talented members.
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Hager Homestead, originally Middlesex Senior Cohousing, has also broken ground, working around the historic homestead they are converting to be their common house. By clustering their new cottages, they are conserving most of their 15 acres as wetlands and open space, a great example of how to honor the property’s history and protect land for wild life while building new housing designed for aging in place.
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Shortly into the new year, we expect to see to see our clients in Bozeman and Houston breakground also. |
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Bozeman gets the award for the most young families involved. Its great to see babies and young’ns interrupting the parents on zoom calls. It must have been those cute goats the community is keeping on the property that attracted so many kids (pun intended!). Both the community and their local developer have committed $100,000 each to help underwrite the costs of two homes in the community to help several more families afford to buy in.
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CoHousing Houston gets the award for the most innovative marketing approach, when members Kelli and Lynne started their own podcasts exploring various aspects of cohousing, now up to Episode 44 about celebrations in cohousing. Explore them here: https://www.cohousinghouston.com/podcast. And yes, this is the first cohousing to get to construction in Texas! 500 Communities Affiliate David Kelley is their developer partner.
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Mosaic Village in Calgary has committed funding to get going on their construction documents this Fall, so that they can get under construction in Summer 2022. Several of the community’s families pooled their resources to buy their property in the Bowness Neighborhood, close to shops and just a few blocks from the Bow River.
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(Being close to a river does seem to be a theme of many of these communities: also River Song, Washington Commons) Bowness was its own small town until 1964 and retains that strong sense of place today.
Several more clients are moving thru their planning approvals.
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Rooted NW was created to use the cohousing model to save farm land: combining village living and permaculture farming. They closed on their 240 acres in 2020, but the County had no appropriate zoning ordinance to allow them to cluster the allowable density in two villages to save the farmland although they appear supportive of the approach. Snohomish County is now working thorough a new ordinance that would allow the Rooted NW Master Plan for two villages to be processed. In the meantime, members are excited to get out on their land and are seeking farmers to start working it.
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BERKELEY MOSAHAV, BERKELEY, CA
The San Francisco Bay is one of the more difficult places to develop any type of housing, and particularly challenging for cohousing groups who must compete for Property against many well-healed developers. But 500 Communities Affiliate Roger Studley managed to pull off purchasing ½ acre for a community that celebrates Jewish life. After spending most of the year working out the community design with their professional team, Berkeley Moshav ends the year with their submittal of that design to the City of Berkeley Planning Department. This community has four 500 Communities Affiliates working together. In addition to Roger and CoHousing Solutions, the community is working with Danny Milman from UD+P as their development partner, and Shelly Parks is consulting on marketing.
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Mission Peak got their 1.23 acres in the Irvington Neighborhood under contract in late 2019, only to be further stalled by lengthy process to get permission to demolish the existing structures, which they finally received this October. They moved quickly to purchase the Property. Now they are moving full steam ahead to
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grow their community and develop their design. Pretty amazing that not one, but two, communities have managed to purchase land in the expensive San Francisco Bay Area market. But it certainly takes a few burning persistent souls…. And we know who you are! |
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Working with 500 Communities Affiliate, Eugenie Stockman, we are pleased to be supporting her effort to create a community for “pro-active adults” within a ambitious Witchcliff EcoVillage in Western Australia. Eugenie is the CEO of Co-operative Housing, who will be the development partner for the community. It’s great to see a developer taking the lead to initiate this community that will combine market-rate and affordable homes subsidized by the government, all required to meet the strong environmental standards of the EcoVillage. This community will surely inspire more cohousing down under.
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Getting Started and Plugging Along |
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In many ways this is the hardest phase, building interest and finding partners before you have property. People tell you over and over again that “it's a great concept” and to “keep me posted” but are reluctant to come on board to help with the real work of “making it real.” We see you and we know this is the hard work that takes dedicated burning souls to keep going when it often feels so impossible.
And then there are those that shared the dream, but found that costs of new construction had outrun their budgets, or that a highway might be planned for the Property they had just gotten under contract, or that the property seller did not seem to have any sense of urgency about cleaning up the dirty dirt on the property. For you we hope the story of River Song finally getting under construction provides faith that you, too, will find the way to hang in there to pursue your community dreams.
And to all of you who dream of finding a community you can call home, all of you doing the hard work to make your dreams a reality, we honor your persistence and look forward to working with you in 2022, one neighborhood at a time, to show the world that people can live collaboratively and can work together to create more sustainable and resilient world.
May your holidays be bright and Happy New Year!
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Hold the Date : National Cohousing Conference |
The Cohousing Association has announced the next In-person National Cohousing Conference will be August 25-28, 2022 in Madison WI. These conferences offer a wealth of information and connections for anyone interested in cohousing and any stage of cohousing (seeking, forming, and long-time living in cohousers). We look forward to seeing lots of new and old friends there.
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We provide development consulting services to help you create your sustainable neighborhood. Our team pioneered the development of cohousing in North America, and we have helped create dozens of successful communities.
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Our newest venture involves training passionate cohousing entrepreneurs through the year-long 500 Communities Program.
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CoHousing Solutions
(530) 478-1970
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