Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: modular cohousing community

[King Collins (greenmac]

>     Hello - my first post.  I'm in Kalispell, Montana where the city
>planner told me that he had never heard the word cohousing uttered in this
>county- but that I would find support for the concept in his office. Let's
>hope!
>     I, too, had never heard the word  2 years ago when I  developed a
>20-dwelling rural community concept ( as yet unrealized) called "circle
>village".   Living in my sterile neighborhood I realized the automobile
>isolated me from my neighbors.  So I put the road to the outside of a 6 acre
>circle with houses on the inside perimeter and common house and ground in
>the center.
>     Imagine my surprise when investigating strawbale construction I came
>across the word cohousing.
>      Recently I have focused on developing a low-cost cohousing tract using
>modular homes.  I have many hardworking employees who cannot enter the local
>housing market  as we are a "discovered" place where home prices have
>doubled in the last few years.
>       Briefly my current plan is to get an option on a  4-6 acre tract with
>city services and then try to develop it like a mobile court.   A road
>around the outside with the lot hook-ups in place.

This is an absolutely great idea.  I'd like to know more about it. You
might also buy out an old motel and transform it. It seems like you could
build

The  prospective
>dweller would purchase their own home ( a nice 1300 sq.ft. goes for about
>60K) and then buy into the  non-profit cohousing corporation for about 15K.

I'd like to know how you arrived at those figures.

>I believe buying stock to be important  for good motivation to contribute as
>the corporation would have to build the common house and make other
>improvements over time.  These , however could be good  galvanizing projects.
>      If 20 dwellings bought in there would be the necessary capital for the
>payback  of  the initial investment .  Improvements would have to be made
>with assessments and sweat equity.   However the stock could be sold market
>price if someone desired to leave and hopefully it could rise in value.

Some of us have pondered the idea of buying a old motel (I think of a
typical layout with the oval drive) and transforming it while living in
some of the units. I really like the idea of "modular units." It sounds
like it would make construction cost come down. Would they all look alike?
Hopefully not. Would they fit into the local terrain?


Greenmac
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Ukiah, CA 95482
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