Cohousing-L Mailing List: Limits on # of households?

[Conkling, Rowena (Conkling]

 ----------
  Cambridge Cohousing is currently making final decisions on the number and
size of units and households we want to include in our final plan for
submission to the Planning Board.  Because affordability is a major issue in 

a city such as Cambridge MA, the suggestion has been made that we increase
the number of units on our site from 36 to 41, which could reduce unit cost
as much as $10,000 each.   It is an urban site with a mixture of
town-houses, walk-ups and elevator-accessible flats, and the addition of
units  will not have a significant impact on the physical layout and open
space.

We are, however, concerned that increasing the number of households may
create social/community problems.  Our group will consist of at least 12
families with young children, 12 singles and 12 "others" (couples without
children or with adult children, unrelated adults, etc.).  Because we have a 

high proportion of families without children our total numbers will not be
huge.  One the other hand, it has been suggested that larger numbers of
households tends to reduce the cohesiveness of the group, whch might then
tend to break up into smaller "like" groups.

Has anyone experienced problems with either too few or too many households?
 We would very much like to hear from existing groups how they believe the
number of households affects the community, and whether you think that 41 is 

too many.

Looking forward to your help.

Rowena C.


 ----------