| Williams Oregon Community Proposal | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Fred H Olson -- WB0YQM (FRED%JWH VX.CIS.UMN.EDU)
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| Date: Sun, 21 Nov 93 05:24 CST | |
WILLIAMS OREGON COMMUNITY PROPOSAL
WILLIAMS OREGON COMMUNITY PROPOSAL
COHOUSING-L Sysop's note: The proposers not themselves on Internet; this
article was received from a net connected friend of theirs. It is a
long statement of their proposal, 290 lines long total. To follow up:
Write or call: Kevin/Melanie, 130 4th Street, Ashland, OR 97520
(503) 482-7909
Two world traveling, skeptical,
spiritual, self-employed, creative bohemians with
incredible land seek a select, eclectic assortment of
responsible, interesting people of any race, gender or
sexual preference to live together forever and ever.
We love children, mountains and wordplay.
What follows is, in a way, a
glorified personal ad. Hopefully, you'll be both
patient and interested. Read on.
GENERAL PURPOSE AND GOALS
Why intentional community? We feel that certain
social arrangements of the past -- the extended family,
the tribe, the village -- offer lessons for combating
the alienation of late 20th century life. These
"relics" of the past can be a clue to creating new
forms that transcend the limitations of isolated
nuclear families and individuals in providing such
things as child care and emotional, intellectual and
physical support.
Our vision of community is one of living among our
friends, family and co-workers. It involves working
and playing together, celebrating life and seasonal
passages and addressing problems and solving them
together. For us, community provides for a more
comfortable, interesting and healthy existence than
living by ourselves in city, suburb or country.
Rural co-housing (in effect a small, planned
community development with separate houses/kitchens,
community building and a commons) offers the physical
infrastructure for achieving much of the above, the
private spaces taking the rough edges off of unlimited
interpersonal interactions. However, we expect people
to want to have a high level of involvement in the
community.
We would like to see the following: childcare
provisions (and with the right people possibly co-
parenting); intergenerational involvement -- children
and parents of parents; a sense of personal and
community responsibility; interest in progressive
politics, feminist values, personal growth and self-
examination, involvement in local and no-so-local
issues of the day; playfulness; some land-based
business, such as farming or cottage industry; self-
employed people; creative people.
What wouldn't work for us? Dogmatic spiritualism,
heavy or dependent use of drugs, alcohol or tobacco;
survivalist with end-of-civilization illusions; people
who are homophobic, racist or mysogenistic; people with
a history of violence or abusive behavior; growing or
selling of drugs. The OCA, Ronnie Reagan, Pat
Buchanan or Rush Limbaugh need not apply.
We are committed to using consensus process in our
community, at least for important decisions. We feel
it is the best method of decision-making because it
allows all opinions to be aired, a synthesis of
different ideas and needs can be formed, and solutions
can be agreed upon which look toward cooperation and
participation of all parties.
THE LAND
The land we've bought is in the Williams valley of
Southern Oregon. We chose Southern Oregon because land
is relatively inexpensive; there are a variety of
cultural activities in the area; and we are out of the
immediate impact of large urbanized zones, but we can
still go to San Francisco or Portland -- a half day's
journey away.
Our lovely site lies at the foot of the Siskiyou
Mountains. A tributary of the Applegate River,
Williams is a minor agricultural region of farms and
ranch land surrounded by mixed conifer forested
mountains with Grayback Mountain (over 7,000 feet) at
the head of the valley. Our land is in the flat part
of the valley with south facing views of the mountains
across our meadow. The 43+ acres includes a 5 acres
spring-fed reservoir, about 10 acres of field and
meadow, with the remainder primarily mixed pine and fir
forest with some oak and madrone.
The "town" of Williams has a post office, general
store, care, gas station, a few other small businesses,
library, public elementary school and a parent-run
alternative school. There are a large number of
"alternative" people living in the area. Sources of
full employment in the valley are minimal. The closest
towns are Grants Pass (20,000 people, 30 minutes away),
a retirement community and whitewater rafting capital;
Medford (50,0000 people, 45 minutes away), which has a
large wood products and canning industry, the largest
city of Southern Oregon; and Ashland (16,000 people, 60
minutes away), a cultural center noted for theater,
tourist and college economy.
The land is at 1500 feet elevation, getting
occasional winter snow. The frost-free period is
usually considered to be May through September.
Summers are sunny and hot with occasional
thundershowers. Spring and fall are variable,
alternating periods of rain and lovely balmy days.
Southern Oregon is known for its orchards, especially
apples, pit-fruits and pears, vineyards and livestock
ranches. Our fields are primarily a silty loan with
sandier sections and some subirrigated acres. The
field/meadow has been dry farmed in the past. Most of
the land has been maintained for its timber potential,
but has not been recently cut.
The land is fairly private, both from the county
road and other dwellings. It has good access roads,
three good wells and access to another spring/pond area
-- all of which have done very well in prolonged
drought conditions. The reservoir, built in the '20s,
is used for swimming and fishing (nativized bass,
bluegill and trout). On the land is a contemporary,
over 3,000 square foot house with 5 bedrooms and a
large garage, an 800 square foot workshop and a 1500
square foot mobile home. The land is zones so that we
can legally have 8 dwellings. There are potential
homesites at the edge of the meadow or in more private,
wooded locations. Fire protection services are just
minutes away.
WHO WE ARE (or Were)
Melanie's story: In my early years I danced,
investigate psychology and spiritually and way very
involved in anti-nuclear politics, especially
nonviolence preparation, group facilitation and direct
action. My "working" career has been in law,
bookkeeping and small business administration. My
current interests are: healing myself to enable another
pregnancy and participate more in dance, gardening and
building; designing and managing our building projects
and business affairs; cultivating new friends in
Southern Oregon and potential community members. I am
38 years old.
Kevin's tale: Now 35, my profession is fine-art
photography and shooting for photo stock-houses. A
native Oregonian, my forebears homesteaded very close
to Williams in the last century. My interests include
contact improv dancing; art-doing it, talking it,
seeing it; history; politics; travel abroad;
mountaineering; discussion; carpentry; ritual;
community affairs; coffee; and romantic gossip. Am I
eclectic yet?
We have been in a committed relationship for six
years. We share in common an enthusiastic but
realistic belief in intentional community. We have
lived in less ambitious community schemes for over 12
years, mostly in Santa Cruz, including exciting,
political co-op houses and our own land where 4-7
adults plus kids experimented with community methods.
This land became too small for us once people started
having children. We share a commitment to progressive
social change, both political and personal. In so much
as it is possible without becoming didactic zealots, we
have tried to live our ideals. Responsibility in our
personal lives is am important and natural value;
living simply and with low impact on the planet. We
have a rather personal sense of the spiritual,
reflecting neo-pagan, inner journeying, nature-
respecting beliefs. We don't follow anyone. We are
interested in raising children in a supportive
environment. After the tragic loss of a newborn in
1992, we are working on medical issues to prevent a
repetition in the future. We may adopt.
We moved to Southern Oregon in 1992 to set the
groundwork for a potential community. We now live in a
small house in Ashland, scheming.
MONEY AND LEGAL
We're not planning to write our by-laws until we
have at least a couple more families involved in the
project. Early members get lots of input. Ideally, we
would like to community to be owned on a completely
egalitarian basis: one family/household = one share;
one share = a fraction of total cost. If we have 8
households, we each own 1/8 of everything except our
own house. Questions to be resolved: What do we do
while looking for those 8 households: What if we never
get the full number?
The cost will be somewhere between $55,000 - $70,000
per household not including the building of your house.
A more detailed financial breakdown is available to
those who are interested. We recognize that we may
need to hold several shares for some period of time
while we look for more members. We're willing to do
this up to a point.
Early members will choose among several legal
possibilities, including condominium-style ownership,
co-op, land trust or dividing the land into individual
parcels. We're initially open to any of these options.
To keep the community intact, we will need to have a
buy-out plan. We favor one which is heavily weighed
towards the viability of the community without being a
rip-off to the individuals who need to leave. Some
ideas which are being tossed around are:
1. limiting future appreciated
value to a certain percent per year;
2. allowing an extended period
for buy-out to be arranged, at least 2 years. During
this time, the household be rented (Williams is a
desirable rental area);
3. limiting dollar amount or
size of houses. For example, you could build a 3,000
square foot house, but only 1,500 square feet would
be included in buy-out amount.
We feel strongly that it should be possible for some
people to live in our community who do not have the
resources to invest. Rental, work exchange or other
possibilities should be part of our agreement. Other
issues which will need to be addressed in our by-laws
include: shared responsibility for land maintenance and
community property; whether building code is required;
possible design review; limitation on mortgages which
could negate our buy-out arrangements.
Finally, it is not our intention to offer employment
or financial assistance to members. You will need to
have income from outside the community. The land could
probably support one or two people through farming, but
it would be totally the responsibility of those wishing
to do it.
GETTING INVOLVED: VISITING AND SELECTION
Still interested? Or better, more interested? You
might want to see the place. Here's the scoop. Our
home in Ashland is an hour away from Williams. We
don't plan to move to the land until we have other
potential members to live there with us. We hope this
will happen in 1994. You should first make a short
visit of 2-3 days. Please check with us in advance.
That way we can meet you, answer your questions face to
face and give you the guided tour. After we move to
the land, you will be able to stay with us there.
After an initial visit, if you are really
interested, we would want you to come for a longer
visit/pre-trial period of 2-3 weeks duration when we
can get to know each other better and experience our
styles of living, working, talking. We will make time
during this visit to share ideas about the form and
direction of the community, taking your suggestions
into serious consideration. On this longer visit, we
would expect you to contribute to food and utilities.
Consider it vacation time with some involvement in work
projects such as gardening or building.
Finally, if you decide this community could be your
dream come true, we like you and feel that your
involvement would work for all concerned, then you
would be a provisional member for one year, with a
review at 6 months. At the end of that time, if
accepted, you would be expected to invest and/or build.
During that year, you would live in either the house,
which would accommodate up to 2 families with a shared
kitchen or the 3-bedroom mobile home. You would pay
rent or its equivalent during this time. The probation
period could be extended if either party is still not
sure.
There should be a place for people who don't have
money for buying in to rent or share special skills
instead. Nobody (except us) will be buying in until we
have a firm committed group of at least 3 families or 2
families and a couple of single people.
Earlier in the process, provisional members would
probably have full decision-making involvement in the
selection of newer provisional members and in the
writing of the by-laws. By using consensus process, we
are retaining the right to block any proposal or
member. Once a core group exists, provisional members
would have input into decision-making, but no blocking
powers.
PARTICIPATE EARLY AND OFTEN IF
YOU WANT TO BE A FOUNDING PARENT.
Write or call: Kevin/Melanie, 130 4th Street, Ashland, OR
97520; (503) 482-7909
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