Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Urban-Rural Dipole <FWD>

[Rob Sandelin (robsan]

One way to make the urban-rural Dipole work nicely is to maintain 
single ownership.  A cohousing association can own a farm as a group, 
thereby avoiding the whole subdivision issue.  Remodel the barn into a 
common structure and remodel the farm house into a group house.  I have 
friends that have done this, have  9 families living on the farm, under 
cooperative ownership.  The corporation "owns" the land and they all 
live there.    Granted, this means your personal space is limited but 
if this were done in conjunction with an urban group it might work well.

So in concept you co-own a washing machine, a commonhouse, various 
tools, and a farm.  This could also apply to vacation property in the 
mountains, a sailboat, an office site etc.  The capital potential of a 
group of 25 or more people can be quite large.  Split a $500 a month 
mortgage payment among 30 people and that is less than $20 each.  A 
$1,000 payment a month is  only $33 a month!  If 30 people put in $15 a 
month for a year they have raised over $5,000.  That is close to a down 
payment on 20 acres of zoned farmland not far from where I live.  Lease 
out the farm for pasture, rent the farm house and you can reduce costs 
and still enjoy the country.  The Love Israel family did this for 
years, eventually bought the farm and now it is a major community asset 
for them.  In our area much of the farm land is zoned such that it can 
not be developed, thus its value as land stays constant and is not 
affected by raising real estate markets because its not housing, its 
farm land.  A friend of mine just bought 138 acres of zoned farm land 
at $2,000 an acre. It's zoned 1 house per 100 acres and the remaining 
38 acres are wetland anyway, which is financially useless, but 
biologically and educationally incredibly valuable.  She intends to 
start an intentional community on the land and remodel the barn into a 
crafts and educational center.

The idea of making major land purchases to extend a cohousing community 
is totally doable given that you can spread the costs over the economic 
power of the total group.

Rob Sandelin
Puget Sound Cohousing Network