Cohousing-L Mailing List: Farms and Cohousing

[Joel Woodhull (jwoodhull]

On Mar 19 Steve Mabley <Mabes [at] aol.com> of Beulah Road CoHousing in
Washington, DC wrote on the topic of developing cohousing on
farmland, which he labeled "NIMBY-ism & Opposition to Cohousing".

In his reply, John Gear wondered if building cohousing on farmland
at all was a good idea, but offered a range of solutions,
including building at high density on a small fraction of the
farm, and providing a means for keeping the farming going in
perpetuity.

Stephen Hawthorne of Blue Heron Farm in Pittsboro, NC endorsed
Gear's ideas, and told how "Blue Heron Farm is putting 15 units on
a small part of 64 acres of old farm and planning to continue to
farm  it for organic vagetables and livestock for our own
consumption and local sale."

Developing in the way that all of these people, including Steve
Mabley, propose, is certainly better than typical suburban sprawl,
because some farming is likely to be preserved.  My concern is
that 15 or 30 units of cohousing doesn't represent a large enough
agglomeration for any serious kind of urban services, and the
people that live there will be just about as auto dependent as if
they were in a sprawl community that wipes out the farm.  Although
this approach may offer the opportunity suggested by John Gear, to
"have secure access to fresh food without reliance on the
SuperGiant and the highways and oil use that food from the
supermarket represents", the oil savings is likely to be small for
a number of reasons.

We are embarking on a somewhat different approach in Sebastopol,
CA.  If all goes according to hopes, the cohousing will be placed
within the urban limit lines, with whatever gardening can be done
on the site.  A mile outside the town boundary, we are buying a 9
acre parcel with a house on it (the farm).  The idea is that the
farming there would be associated with the cohousing, much like at
Blue Heron.  The difference is that the higher density development
is put where it is more appropriate.  The zoning in the County of
Sonoma, where the farm is located, seems to be intended to keep
any more development from occurring, which is as it should be.

There are still many loose ends in this venture that need to be
tied together.  I will be hoping to pick up ideas from
COHOUSING-L, as I already have; there is a wealth of information
here.

Joel Woodhull Pasadena Member of a cohousing group in Sebastopol
that should have a name by tomorrow.