Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: "corporate" form question

[Sanda Everette (severette]

Jim,
I would appreciate it if you have any more info about the cooperative
structure since we are looking at that for our urban retrofit project.

All,
Does anyone have info on that structure or is anyone using that
structure in California?

Sanda Everette
San Mateo Cooperative/Cohousing forming
> 
> All I know about my community's legal structure (which was formed before
> I arrived) is the community started as a cooperative (occupying a single
> retrofit building).  When the "second phase" was started (7 new
> townhouses) the bank refused to finance them as a cooperative, they
> insisted on individual ownership, which means the townhouse residents
> needed to form a condo association.  To legally unify the community we
> had to form a third "master association", which has authority over the
> condo and the cooperative.
> 
> This has little to do with our internal community organization, of
> course; we operate as one community.  However, you can imagine how
> complicated our legal and financial (including budget) matters have
> become.  We may have the most complicated legal structure of any
> cohousing community.
> 
> Jim
> --
> Jim Nordgaard /\ jimn [at] jriver.com  /\ www.jimn.org
> J. River, Inc. - Monterey Cohousing Community - Green Party of MN