Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: grants

[Legal-All Lawyers (Salley]

The following message is from Rowena Conkling my address is
salley [at] volpe1.dot.gov

I am a member of a newly formed group, Cambridge Cohousing, which is 
struggling to evaluate the type of legal entity we need to interact with 
bankers, property owners, etc.  I would appreciate any comments, insights, 
recommendations in this area.  I've read the article from Cohousing Journal 
but I'm really looking for war stories.  In particular:

Has any group out there formed a corporation rather than a partnership/joint 
venture for the early stages of development?

If so, why?  What advantages/disadvantages did it have?  Would you do it 
again?

Did any JVs have problems with banks - demands for personal guarantees, etc?

We would also like to hear from any group that has attempted to include an 
affordable component - successful or not.

Thanks for your help.


 ----------
From: cohousing-l
Subject: grants
Date: Tuesday, August 22, 1995 12:54PM

Are any of the communities out there incorporated in such a way that they
can write grants for funding?  We're considering chartering our coho
community as an educational center for environmental/appropriate tech
issues, having a formal mini-conference center and dormitory, and
creating a village of electronic cottages, wired up for Internet, and
running on a combination of alternative energy tech, and demonstrating
sustainable ag tech.  Someone must have thought of this before...  I
know that there are intentional communities in this area, but not coho
arrangements, that do this kind of thing, but I don't know if they got
grants for it...

Thanks!
Shava Nerad
shava [at] ns.uoregon.edu