Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Community size and number of units

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

Another issue on number of units is the number of people living in  
each unit. We have 43 units but many of them were occupied by single  
people when we moved in. We only had 6 children and 3 of those were  
private children in that they tended to stay home more than being  
outside playing.

Then partners moved in.

Then we had small children.

Then we had children growing up and adopted as older children -- 6-10  
-- who begin to take up a lot of room in term of noise and physical  
activity.

And the some singles and less involved couples moved out and  
partnered, very active people moved in.

Right now I feel like the community is  it is about 33% larger but  
feels twice the size. This feeling might go away but right now it  
feels crowded and I've lost track of people and team activities. I  
used to know everything that was going on.

I haven't talked to others about this extensively but I do see the  
stress over space use and friction between those who want adult space  
and time, and the parents of kids from 6-10 who are all over the place  
now. Christmas school vacation was hard for some of us.

There are also many more opinions about how things should be done.  
More invoking of the bylaws to settle issues when we rarely looked at  
them before.

Some of this I'm sure will pass but I'm not sure it will ever be the  
same.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing,Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org