Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Converting a Condominium PUD into Coho

[Ben Blount (blount]

Great to hear of others who are doing this is as well.  I'm replying
to the entire list since it seems there is some general interest in this.

On Wed, 29 Nov 1995 Mmariner [at] aol.com wrote:

> Allright!  I knew (some) condo complexes would be good prospects for 
coho.
>  Here in Boulder several complexes have pretty good facilities that could be
> converted.  The central party/playrooms could become the common house with
> some work.

There is currently no central house, but down the road we are planning
on buying out a central unit, gutting the garage and bottom floor and
going from there to build an industrial kitchen, eating areas, adding
a library, etc...
> 
> But how about parking?  What would it take to move parking out of the center
> of things so that you could have pedestrians have precedence over cars?
> 
Thanks to the tireless effort of some of our group in years past, the
City of Santa Cruz has a lower allowance for parking spaces for cohousing
projects than for ordinary developments. This will allow us to get rid
of some of the parking spaces on the interior, while the rest of the spaces
we would have to move to the exterior by building a parking lot.

> How do you plan to do it politically, procedurally?
> 

With much care!  Right now we aren't advertising ourselves to the people 
who live in the complex, but are mentioning it to a few, and overall
we have had very positive response.  We are still sort of "underground"
with interested families not in contact with the current HOA, but instead
with our own group - "Rosewood Village CoHousing".  
This status may change.
> -  Is there a condo assn.?  What's their attitude/knowledge of your
> conversion?  Resistance?  Would you have to get a majority to fully become
> cohousing?
> 
Yes and they just know we are some families who like to meet alot and 
want to live around each other.  I think that we would need a majority, which
is 10 units to become officially cohousing and start knocking things down.

> Very interested in this model for urban redevelopment.  Keep us informed.
> 
> Mike M
> Boulder
> 

I'll let the list know when units come up for sale or rent and whe
anything major happens

John Deck