Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: 12 Unit Cohousing - Too Small?

[Doug Huston (huston]

We are on 1.3 acres with 13 units (townhouses) for 13 years now. A couple of 
things we often have said about our size is when it’s good it’s very sweet, and 
when it’s not so good - there’s nowhere to hide. And there are much of the same 
tasks to be done as with a larger community, but with less members do to it. We 
are very much 'in town' in a city/town of 20,00 population in Ashland Oregon 
where we recently had terrible fires. We did have to have it rezoned for 
increased density which resulted in the seemingly obligatory opposition by 
neighbors. We ultimately succeed after a prolonged journey. We self-developed 
(think hard about that before doing it - or don’t do it). Two-Acre Woods in 
Sebastopol, CA is also a similar sized cohousing community.

- Doug Huston (Ashland Community Cohousing)
 

> On Sep 19, 2020, at 4:42 PM, fergyb2 via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> I believe Doyle Street Cohousing in Albany, CA  where  Chuck and Katie 
> Durrett once lived is a similar size but also in an urban environment.  Also 
> New Brighton Cohousing in Santa Cruz County, CA is small.  Usually the trade 
> off is more intimacy in a small community vs maybe not enough folk to do the 
> necessary work.
> Bonnie Fergusson
> Swans Market Cohousing
> Oakland, CA
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
>> On Sep 19, 2020, at 4:21 PM, Scott Wild <wildscott [at] gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> First listserv post so bear with me!
>> 
>> We recently met some kind, motivated folks forming a cohousing group
>> around a 1.5 acre parcel near a small city. They're aggressively
>> pursuing the parcel as land in the area is rare, expensive, and zoned
>> for large single family homes.
>> 
>> Due to zoning restrictions they're planning on 12 approx. 1,000-1,500
>> sq ft cottages, and don't seem immediately interested in lobbying the
>> city for more dense permitting - a la duplex/quadplex construction.
>> 
>> Does anyone have familiarity with smaller cohousing communities? I'm
>> aware of Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing, which seems quite successful at
>> 9 units, but they're in a fully urban environment.
>> 
>> Thanks for your input!
>> Scott
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