Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Mixed use cohousing / site selection

[JoycePlath (JoycePlath]

Marsh Commons in Arcata Ca. deliberately choose a site that was walking
distance from the center of town and was zoned for light industrial,
commercial, and residential.  One of our origonal members members was a
potter who wanted to have heer kiln on site and sell commercially out of her
studio. Our site came with a 7000 sf industrial building .  When we rehabed
it we used 4000sf for our common house and turned 3000sf into
office/commercial space.  We had hoped that the members would take advantage
of this lice=work opportunity.  So far I am the only member to locate my
office in the building,  the remaining spaces are rented to a variety of
local business folks.  Some, but not all, of our members hope that the
renters will eventually be incorporated into the co-housing extended
community in some way (maybe by sharing some meals with us),  Right now our
common house is just being completed and our houses haven't begun
construction yet so its hard to tell.  It just seems to me that our small
group of twelve households could be enriched in this way.  
I think the issue of expanding community beyond just the residents is
 exciting.  One of my thoughts on this issue isin having Friday night
potlucks in which all the shared meal leftovers are put out and friends of
co-housing members know they are welcome to drop in with their pot luck
contributions of food and wine. kBefore I had children I used to really enjoy
stopping in at the local bar for a beer on Friday nights and frequently
 joining  in  a variety of good conversations.  The potluck idea could work
socially in a similar way.