Cohousing-L Mailing List: Is communal ownership obligatory for cohousing?

[Brian Bartholomew (bb]

I'm trying to figure out if the intentional neighborhood we're trying
to build should be labeled a cohousing.

In the view of the cohousing movement, is a "common" facility
identified as such because it has shared *ownership*, or shared *use*?
Is collective ownership of property so central to cohousing that a
group isn't cohousing without it?

I'm reading through "The six defining characteristics of cohousing".
For #3 we plan to share the use of meeting halls, workshops, gardens,
and woods, but we don't plan to share the ownership of them.  For #4
there are no policies for the community, because the authority is not
delegated to anyone to make them.  However, we can still act alike if
we want to.  For #5 no one person (or persons) has authority over
others, because there is no shared ownership of real property, HOA, or
other authorization of such authority.  Group decisions are made by
consensus, and it's the real thing because there is no majority vote
or other trump hidden anywhere in the process.

                                                        Brian