Cohousing-L Mailing List: Introduction to Judy Baxter (really)

[Fred H Olson -- WB0YQM (FRED%JWH]

Oooops.  When I tried to repost this a few minutes ago I grabed the wrong file
by mistake... (It should have had the subject 'sample documents needed')
If you've followed this sequence of messages you may realize I'm up past my
bedtime -- it's 1:39 am cst now.  ugh but after this it's to bed, promise
Fred

Subj: Introduction to Judy Baxter
From: Judy <BAXTER%EPIVAX [at] vx.cis.umn.edu>
Date: Nov 16, 1992

I'm Judy Baxter - I was one of the founders of the Twin Cities CoHousing
Network in April, 1990  . Since then I've been in 3 core groups: the Urban
Sooners  (i.e. sooner rather than later), the Bryn Mawr group ( a combination
of Urban Sooners and another, sort-of suburban group, which coalesced around a
site just inside the city line), and now the Monterey group.  The Bryn Mawr
group bought 6 lots at tax-forfeit auction as a way of taking an option on a
larger property.  Eventually, we decided that problems with water and potential
toxic waste contamination made the site too risky for us to develop.  

Now I'm in Monterey, which formed around a site in St. Louis Park, a 1st ring
suburb, with 2.5 acres and a former nursing home building.  We didn't look
financially credible to the owner, a bank (after a foreclosure) and didn't get a
purchase agreement, but decided to stay active anyway in hopes that American
Youth Hostel, which did get a purchase agreement, would have zoning problems. 
To cut a long story short, we worked very hard and things looked good for a
while, and then , end of July, the City Council approved a 60-bed hostel  . 
AYH said they needed 85 beds, but they said they would make it work, and we
gave up.  And mourned.

And October 16,1992 we heard that AYH was having difficulty w/ financing, and
the owner (a bank) was open to an offer.  .... We signed a purchase agreement a
week ago, and now have to close on , (gulp) December 18.

So, we are now incredibly busy, and I think we'll make it.

Judy