Cohousing-L Mailing List: ...Cohousing in existing neighborhood (Boston area)

[Maren Leyla Cooke (maren]

        Hi.  While we're on the topic of renter-members, let's also  
return to the issue of creating cohousing in existing neighborhoods and  
add a spoonful of immediacy to the recipe.
        We have an eight-person co-op in west Somerville, Massachusetts  
(near Arlington).  It's in a two-family house which has been informally  
converted into a single-coop house (one set of livingroom/diningroom/  
kitchen converted to bedrooms & office space).  Our household has  
existed for about nine years, most of it renting part of another house;   
three years ago two of us bought this house and we all relocated.  To  
address the recent renter-member discussion, all members of our co-op  
take part in house decisions.  Basically, the owners rent to the co-op,  
of which they are also members.  House meetings occasionally get  
interesting as people change hats, but all in all it works pretty well.   

        Many of our members have long been interested in cohousing in  
various forms.  At the time we moved here, though, we needed to remain  
within reach of the subway, etc., and did not have the time to help  
establish a classical cohousing community in or out of the city.
        Now an adjacent house has come up for sale, and we'd very much  
like to expand into that house as a cohousing community of sorts.   
There's already a large community of friends who do things together  
(regular potlucks & folksings, hikes, picnics, frisbee bouts, roadtrips  
to Washington for demonstrations at the Capitol, projects, rituals from  
Seders to Solstices, etc.) built up around our house over the years;  a  
few of the people involved actually live in our physical neighborhood  
and are also interested in taking part in a local, multi-house cohoesque  
community.  The combined yard would be enormous, and already has lots  
of gardens (mostly on our side of the fence), a children's playhouse and  
swings (mostly on the other side of the fence), and trees (both sides).  
 (We propose to take down said fence if this notion bears fruit...)
        The only missing portion of this puzzle is enough solvent  
coho-minded people to buy the house.  It's a large two-family (on a huge  
lot), and could either be kept as such or converted (as we've done to  
our house, providing space for more people, & hence of course less cost  
per person/family).  I won't go into the logistical or financial details  
here, but there are several scenarios in which it could work -- ranging  
from one buyer who rents out the rest of the house, to several  
co-buyers who live in the house, to having contributions from folks over  
here or elsewhere:  we would invest a considerable sum in order to make  
this happen.  There is already interest from within our community to  
co-buy, rent, or invest -- just not quite enough to bring it off just  
yet.  Is any one out there on the list (either living around here or  
considering moving here) interested in talking about the prospect with  
me/us?  If so, email or give a call!  I can provide plenty of  
information on the house(s), the community, the neighborhood, and the  
situation.  Time, however, is of the essence.  The house recently went  
on the market, and while the owners (nice folks!) have essentially  
offered us right-of-first-refusal, a potential buyer could come along at  
any time and if we don't have all our ducks in a row then we'd be out  
of luck.

Let me know what you think of this idea, in general and in specific,

  -- Maren Cooke
     Teal Co-op  (our house is teal-colored, located near Teele Square)
     maren [at] ossian.harvard.edu      
     (617)629-2619