Cohousing-L Mailing List: Article on Cohousing in Belgium

[Thomas Lofft (tlofft]

I enjoyed this article immensely.
I offer my compliments to the author, Diana Goodwin, for an excellent article, 
very well written, and totally devoid of acronyms. 
It's obvious that the challenges to cohousing development that we find in the 
US are not at all unique to the US, especially bureaucratic historic 
preservation organizations, and the architectural control and density control 
ethics of local government.
I also note the success with conversion and conservation of small farms into 
cohousing communities. I am very familiar with three similar conversions in the 
DC area: Hundredfold Farm in PA, Blueberry Hill in VA, and Liberty Village in 
MD. Of course this may not work for urban cohousing, but it provides a 
wonderful opportunity to conserve ample open space while providing acreage for 
building several new homes. I believe several other US cohousing communities 
are also developed from small farms. 
Nonetheless, even urban cohousing communities have been successfully developed 
from the conversion of older commercial buildings, including Eastern Village 
Cohousing in Silver Spring.  
 
Many thanks to Luk for bringing us this information.
 
Tom Lofft
Liberty Village, MD

Hi all,
 
Cohousing is coming up in our country in the last 4 years.
Here is a link to an article in English about Cohousing in Belgium.
 
http://www.flanderstoday.eu/living/co-housing-arrangements-win-popularity-flanders
.
 
Enjoy, kind regards,
Luk Jonckheere
www.samenhuizen.be (cohousing organisation)