Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Combining Farming and Cohousing (was "Feedback Desired"

[Diane Simpson (dqs]

It sounds like it could be a win-win situation for both the farmer and the
cohousing group, but I am concerned about this paragraph here: (from your
web page)

"The by-laws of the cohousing corporation would define the land-use plan
and the farm family would be stewards of the land in exchange for the
rights to work it. Members of the cohousing group would also have the
opportunity to avail themselves of gardens, hiking trails, perhaps a riding
stable and many other amenities that come from owning a large tract of
land."

Who would determine what proportion of the land was to be dedicated to
farming and what proportion was to be dedicated to hiking trails and riding
stables? If the cohouisng community owned the land, I could foresee a
problem with the cohousing community having different prioriteis than the
farmer and wanting to dedicate a majority of the land to hiking trails and
riding stables and perhaps even (perish forbid!) snowmobiling! I would
think that the farmer would have to be careful to get language written into
the deed that specified that the percentage of land to be used for farming
could not fall below a certain percentage or there might be problems in the
future. I'm not a lawyer so I don't kknow if that could be done. It
certainly would be interesting to hear what any of our lawyer-friends on
cohousing-list have to say about this.

--Diane:.)

On Sat, 20 Feb 1999 Rion D'Luz wrote:

        I became introduced to cohousing a couple of years ago, but confess to
>being remiss about following its progress online or in print.  I am a
>farmer and farm advocate in Vermont who is interested in using the
>cohousing model as a means of addressing two very important issues in this
>State.  One is preservation of working landscape and the other is
>transgeneration of farming...
>       I believe that creating a cohousing community on a large property that
>includes a farm family could be a mutually beneficial arrangement.  The
>community would have access to a large tract of land  with very low taxes.
> Land use would be subject to the bylaws of the Corporation and the farm
>family would be stewards of the land.  I know that more than a few rural
>cohousing communities maintain an integral relationship with the land, but
>I think what I'm proposing is unique insofar as land use.
>       My proposal can be found online at
>http://www.sover.net/~lantern/frames/fof/cohouse/cohouse.html

       @@                   DQS [at] WORLD.STD.COM                  @@
      @@@@      Diane Simpson  http://world.std.com/~dqs      @@@@
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