Cohousing-L Mailing List: membership defs/capital costs

[Judy Baxter (BAXTER]

Jeff Hobson wrote :
<<CAPITAL COSTS
Everyone says allocation of capital costs (building the place) should be
done by UNIT, or perhaps "household." Rob Sandelin also points out that the
ownership structure is also the legal structure that the banks & others
will insist on seeing. 
>>
 I'm confused.  
Are we talking about common spaces/facilities?

part of the capital cost was for common space/facilities.  Our
situation was very complex, I'd have to look it up, but again, we have a large
range of unit sizes, which correlate somewhat with income.  Maybe other groups
don't have this range, but in our situation, some folks are living in quite
limited spaces in order to afford it.  It seems unfair to me to have the large
home/household (not always the same, I know) pay the same for common space as
the single person living in a studio size space.  Tho this is harder on the
single person in larger unit.

Our assessments and operating costs are paid according to a "mixture" formula
- 25% of cost is per unit, 75% is per size (sq feet).  This serves to reduce
somewhat the extremes  -larger units pay less than per sq foot, smaller units
pay more.  

Just to mention another way.

Good luck Jeff

Judy

Judy Baxter, Monterey Cohousing Community,(MoCoCo) Twin Cities Area, Mpls.,MN

We were on TV last week - good exposure! They showed our "shared back yard"

-- e-mail:      baxter [at] epivax.epi.umn.edu
        (usually checked on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday)
15 homes - 7 new townhomes plus 
        8 coop apartments               in a rehab Georgian building
(built as a retirement home in 1924 -) which also serves as our Common House
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Two (3 BR +) townhomes  for sale - see our web page
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a SMALLER HOME (1 BR) will be available this summer, as two households combine,
date still uncertain
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 Voice Mail for Monterey Cohousing - 612-930-7554
 web page: http://www.jimn.org/mococo/