Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 261, Issue 32

[Denise Tennen (denisetennen]

 Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Tree Management: Overgrown Trees in Co-housing
>         Communities

After years of flying by the seat of our pants to take care of
storm-damaged trees along our paths and drives, we've instituted a fund to
which we contribute $2,000/ year.

When we have a major tree damage event it has cost us in the range of
$4,000-5,000.

We currently have knowledgeable and capable members who can safely take
care of the smaller trees that need to be taken down or pruned.

We have infrequent (free) inspections from our city's arborist who help us
evaluate the well-being of our trees and actions we can take.

Denise Tennen
Monterey Cohousing Community
St Louis Park, Minnesota

On Thu, Oct 30, 2025 at 5:16 AM <cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

> Send Cohousing-L mailing list submissions to
>         cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
>         https://lists.cohousing.org/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
>         cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
>         cohousing-l-owner [at] cohousing.org
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of Cohousing-L digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Tree Management: Overgrown Trees in Co-housing Communities
>       (Sara Gottlieb)
>    2. Questions on Financial, Legal and Sweat Equity Structures
>       (Jasmine Gold)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2025 12:47:44 -0400
> From: Sara Gottlieb <sara.gottlieb [at] gmail.com>
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Subject: [C-L]_ Tree Management: Overgrown Trees in Co-housing
>         Communities
> Message-ID:
>         <
> CALS+uefH9YjQqCkbR5+OsqTNGhAJK_o60uZV6e1KhzqRrxCrYA [at] mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> >
> > As chair of our Landscape/Hardscape committee, I include an annual
> budget
> > line for tree maintenance to address limb removal advised by a
> professional
> > arborist I have come do a walk-through/inspection each year.  This is
> not a
> > one-and-done situation; trees are living, growing, changing beings with
> > life-spans that can get damaged or sick and eventually die.  Checking on
> > their health regularly (at least annually) and addressing potential
> > problems before they become catastrophic should be part of your regular
> > budget and maintenance routine.
>
>
> Best,
> Sara Gottlieb
> Lake Claire Co-Housing, Atlanta, GA USA
>
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 2
> > Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2025 12:09:14 +0000 (UTC)
> > From: Len Laviolette <email4len [at] yahoo.com>
> > To: <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
> > Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Tree Management: Overgrown Trees in Co-housing
> >         Communities
> > Message-ID: <1986547654.463648.1761653354659 [at] mail.yahoo.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
> >
> > Hi Ed,
> > Our story in Oregon may be much like yours and we have done fairly well
> > with tree problems?compared to other unexpected property losses from?our
> > multiple pipe break?insurance claims over our 27 year history.?
> > We pay for tree pruning and removal mostly out of our general fund
> > contingency account. Just two years ago one storm took out seven of our
> > large Doug firs that were over 100 feet tall and over 100 years old ?and
> we
> > were lucky to have very little real property losses, .i.e. damaged
> > buildings. This one?bad storm did create?serious losses that broke pipes
> in
> > our fire, heat and domestic hot water systems and we chose?to pay for
> > without use of our casualty insurance policy, that had been overused in
> > years past.?
> > We trust our primary arborist to proactively advise and?remove or top off
> > dangerous trees somewhat regularly now?on our?three acre heavily
> > wooded?property. ?A few thousand dollars ever now or then has not
> impacted
> > our operating budget all that much.?
> > Good luck in your budget planning efforts and your tree conservation
> > goals.?
> > Len
> >
> > Len LavioletteTrillium Hollow CoHo??503-432-7320 c ??
> >
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2025 10:57:28 -0700
> From: Jasmine Gold <jasmine [at] spiritgold.com>
> To: Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org
> Subject: [C-L]_ Questions on Financial, Legal and Sweat Equity
>         Structures
> Message-ID:
>         <CAMfPwKtWSDVkvSmHwQvK0td+37X-x6-EirasHRHy+Vnp+s2Z=
> Q [at] mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> I'm interested in getting information on how different communities have
> handled buy-in once they've found land as well as alternative ownership
> models to the traditional cohousing model where everyone owns their own
> home. The traditional model won't work for my property so we're trying to
> figure out how to structure it. More details below the questions.
>
> 1. What was your initial or minimum buy in? How did that change over time?
>
> 2. Are there any communities here that are not legally structured as single
> family homes or condos? How are you structured? LLC? Tenants in Common?
> Private Membership Association? Co-op?
>
> 2. How does your structure affect buying and selling homes?
>
> 3. Does everyone own the property as a whole and is everyone listed on the
> mortgage? Do residents have exclusive rights to their home? Is everyone
> invested equally?
>
> 4. Do you have silent investors or investors who don't live there? Do they
> get a set rate or a percentage of profit? What kind of decision making do
> they have?
>
> 5. Do you allow sweat equity? I'm especially wondering about
> professional services like a licensed contractor who wants to fix up an
> existing home instead of making a down payment.
>
> 6. Did you build your homes together or did the residents build their own
> homes?
>
> I'm sure there will be follow up questions too.
>
> Here are more details on the situation.
>
> My friend and I are in escrow on 10 acres of rural land in Sonoma County,
> California. The property has been subdivided into four lots. Each lot is
> zoned to be able to have a home, 2 ADUs (up to 1200 square feet) as well as
> a  junior ADU (up to 500 square feet) for a possible total of 16 dwellings
> (15 with common house which might have rental rooms). While legally each
> lot can only have one owner, we hope internally to make all or most of the
> homes owner occupied.
>
> There are four existing homes on two of the lots that all need a lot of
> work. One lot has a large home on it that may eventually become the common
> house, but initially the two of us will live in it. The three smaller homes
> on one of the other lots are currently rented.
>
> There is a family thinking about joining our group that would like to live
> in one of the rental homes. The husband is a licensed contractor and the
> family can qualify for a loan, but they don't have much cash to put down.
> They would like to fix up their home as sweat equity. This seems perfect
> since the two of us won't have money left over for constructing new homes
> or fixing up the other homes after buying the property and fixing up the
> home we are going to live in. The amount they can pay per month is about
> the same as the house is currently renting for. We aren't sure how to
> credit the sweat equity though.
>
> Thanks for your help,
> Jasmine
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Subject: Digest Footer
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://L.cohousing.org/info
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 261, Issue 32
> ********************************************
>