Cohousing-L Mailing List: Common House Bang for Buck

[Mark Dempsey (mxd2]

In light of the "bad husband" discussion, I'm wondering whether anyone's
done any study on the financial impact of a common house.  Often it's
presented as an inexpensive way to have an evening meal.  That is not
true, by my lights.

Consider this: if you follow Chuck & Katie's recommendation for a common
house that's 15% of the total development's floor area, then you have
roughly 15% of your payment pays for common house.  If you have a $1,000
monthly payment, then $150 is the common house's share. That's $5 per
evening meal, plus the cost of food, plus whatever common house
utilities cost.  It may cost what a reasonable restaurant meal costs
after that's totalled up, but I doubt it's an unbelievable bargain.

So...has anyone come up with actual figures, not just my guesses? 

Has anyone considered or done a cohousing/commercial partnership with a
restaurant? The restaurant would be open to the public, and would get a
built-in clientelle from nearby cohousers...

How about leasing common house space to day care providers during the
day when cohousers are off to work?  Anyone done that?

Any accountants out there who have worked out cost/benefit stuff for
common house features?

Incidentally, this cohousing/commercial might constrain the cohousing
development itself to an urban environment, or at least to a street
where the daycare or restaurant might be visible (the residences could
be back, off-street).  This promotes less sprawl, more transit...not
altogether a bad thing.


-- 
Regards,

-- mailto:Mark.Dempsey [at] osi.com
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-- Mark Dempsey 
-- Technical Publications
-- Objective Systems Integrators
-- 110 Woodmere, Folsom, CA 95630
-- 916.353.2400 x 4777