Re: Concessions for Affordability
From: Elizabeth Magill (pastorlizmgmail.com)
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2012 07:47:31 -0700 (PDT)
condo fees cover the ordinary condo expenses: plowing, maintenance, etc. 

Cohousing fees cover the cohousing type things. garden and hot tub and laundry 
etc.

We don't necessarily recommend the division, we were required by our 
comprehensive permit to not require the affordable folk to join the cohousing 
thing.

But it allows us to cover our fixed expenses with fees taht are proportional to 
original home price, and to make our other expenses sliding scale.

Condo fees are the large majority of the cost. (mine is around $400 for condo 
fees and $75 or so for cohousing. I think the average cohousing is around $65 
this year.)


-Liz
Elizabeth Magill
www.worcesterfellowship.org




On Jul 16, 2012, at 5:04 AM, R Philip Dowds wrote:

> 
> This sounds interesting, but ...  What's included in the "condo fees"?  
> What's in the "cohousing fees"?  What's the ratio of one to the other?
> 
> RPD
> 
> On Jul 15, 2012, at 9:00 PM, Elizabeth Magill wrote:
> 
>> 
>> I'm not sure what you mean by assessments?
>> 
>> Our affordable homes (25% of the total homes) have a lower condo fees in 
>> perpetuity. They are calculated at a lower percentage of the project. 
>> (condo fees are proportional to the original asking prices of the homes).
>> 
>> For cohousing fees, we have as sliding scale: pledge what you can afford 
>> from 5% of the average needed, to as high as you choose to go. (We publish 
>> the average needed based on teh budget, then households pledge. So far, it 
>> always brings in a bit more than the minimum proposed budget.)
>> 
>> So the condo fees will be lower forever. The coho fees are higher or lower 
>> based on each households own perception of their ability to pay.
>> 
>> Our affordable homes are required by law to stay affordable when re-sold.
>> 
>> -Liz
>> Elizabeth Magill
>> www.worcesterfellowship.org
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Jul 15, 2012, at 5:45 PM, R Philip Dowds wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> Folks —
>>> 
>>> The City of Cambridge has something called "inclusionary zoning", which 
>>> stipulates that all "large", private residential developments must include 
>>> "affordable" dwelling units made available to the City for below-market 
>>> housing controlled by the City.  I have no problem with this; in fact, I 
>>> was one of the citizen activists promoting the idea 15 years ago.
>>> 
>>> Interestingly enough, Cornerstone Cohousing was the first private 
>>> development to be captured by inclusionary zoning, and now has 4 affordable 
>>> units as a permanent part of its 32-unit mix.  The details of how all this 
>>> works are not important here.  What we're trying to figure out is, Should 
>>> assessments on the affordable units be discounted, relative to the 
>>> assessments on the market rate units?  So my questions are ...
>>> 
>>> Do you have a comparable program of subsidized units in your coho 
>>> community?  And, if so ...
>>> What consideration in assessments, or other requirements, do you extend to 
>>> "affordable" units, such that they remain "affordable", and that your 
>>> community thus supports economic diversity?
>>> 
>>> R Philip Dowds AIA
>>> Cornerstone Cohousing
>>> 175 Harvey Street, Unit 5
>>> Cambridge, MA 02140
>>> 617.354.6094
>>> 
>>> _________________________________________________________________
>>> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at: 
>>> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
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>> 
>> 
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
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> 
> 


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