Cohousing-L Mailing List: Site Driven CoHousing

[Joani Blank (jeblank]

Okay, Zev, let's see if anyone wants to opine on this: 

At the conference Katie (McCamant) suggested that given how many groups have
given up in exhaustion because they cannot tie down and proceed on a site,
or because they found themselves trying to do what developers do
professionally with no background for same, perhaps a different approach is
warranted. In this alternative approach, a developer ties up a site, does a
feasibility study and a rough site plan (to be redone later by the group, of
course), gets planning approvals, and gets a significant percentage of the
financing lined up BEFORE the future residents are recruited and start doing
what we most of us--not being developers--look forward to, the joys and
struggles of getting what we want in the place where we live: design,
planning, community-building. 

It may build character to do all that stuff that developers do
professionally, but if the group keels over in the process, particularly
after a long, futile search for a site, what good does it do to have all of
us go our merry ways with our strong characters neatly tucked into our
individual backpacks? And those of you who have been fortunate to start with
a site, know how much easier it is to gain momentum and fill up your
communities when your visions and fantasies are attached to a real physical
place.

Does anyone want to jump into this one?

Joani Blank
Doyle Street CoHousing (now), Old Oakland CoHousing (in a couple of years if
all goes well)