Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re [C-L]_Part 2 of sfgate series looks @ retrofit coho (fwd)

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

In a message by Raines Cohen <raines-coho-L [at] raines.com>
http://csf.colorado.edu/cohousing/2001/msg00769.html  
he wrote:

...
> Carol Lloyd's sfgate.com column continues at:
> 
> http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/lloyd/
> 
....
> The emphasis is on retrofit (aka "organic") cohousing:
...
> Overall it's a heck of a lot more positive (I was impressed to read that 
> 26 people are now living in Temescal Creek Coho!), with emphasis on the 
> benefits:
> 
....
> (and no comparison of the differences, like not having the benefits of 
> common facilities, not being able to use conventional single-homeowner 
> financing assistance programs until the condo conversion takes place, 
> which could be years after move-in, or comparative success rates)

Developing retrofit cohousing is indeed fraught with problems that tend to
differ from conventional cohousing.  And the resulting form is likely to
be suboptimal. However tho your examples are possible, they may not.

Common facilities are possible tho maybe different.  N Street has a common
house and according to the article Temescal Creek:

> The group recently made plans to tear down a two-story garage and build
> a common house for shared meals and an upstairs apartment

Also not all retrofit communities are condo conversion - N Street houses
were aquired by various conventional means by community members as
individual (and various groupings).

I am aware of two retrofit cohousing communities who have folded in the
last year or two.  Clearly retrofit develpoment does have problems.  In both
cases, bad feelings and differences of opinions seem to have made folks
reluctant to discuss the details.  Too bad, it would be nice to learn from
our failures.

For more about
Retrofit cohousing     http://freenet.msp.mn.us/~fholson/cohousing/retrofit

Fred

--
Fred H. Olson  fholson [at] cohousing.org    Minneapolis,MN   55411
(612)588-9532  Amateur radio: WB0YQM          List manager of:
Cohousing-L and Nbhd-tc (Twin Cities Neighborhood issues list)
More info:   http://www.mtn.org/~fholson/sig-detail.htm




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