Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE:

[Larry Landrum (llandrum]

Rob,
        We have been discussing way to make cohousing affordable, and the idea 
of
individual residents having small rental apartments seems a very practical
approach.  Indeed, this is how a large proportion of single people use to
live in the days of old which we seek to in part replicate.  A few
clarifications please.

Was this option anticipated in the planning and the extra population
figured into the project size?  We are looking at a project that may
already have 36 units.  If this pattern were adopted by many of our units
it would put us over the suggested 40 or so maximum number of households.
It would also need to be allowed for in the size of common spaces.

Do owners putting in these accessory apartments pay a larger price for
their lot, or does this allow two households to share only one lot at
standard prices?

Are the individual apartment owners completely on their own regarding
renting and maintaining or have formal or informal links been established
or contemplated?  we have some members who might be wiling to build such a
unit but would not want the hassles of full responsibility.

In our college town community, "accessory apartments" as these type units
are called are not allowed in any regular zoning distract.  we believe we
can get them approved as part of our planned unit development.  Others
wanting to consider this approach should check the legality in their locality

Larry Landrum
New River Valley Cohousing
Blacksburg, VA

Just a couple of more meetings and we should consense on a land offer!


At 10:18 AM 9/25/99 -0500, Rob Sandelin wrote:
>Its probably much easier to do rentals in the lot development model than in
>the capital project model. At Sharingwood we have eight rental families now.
>This means 8 of the 16 built homes have small to medium sized apartments in
>them, usually in the basement, but a couple are over garages. This allows
>renters to be a part of our community and also helps owners cover their
>mortgage payments.
>
>
>
>Rob Sandelin
>Northwest Intentional Communties Association
>Building a better society, one neighborhood at a time
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: cohousing-l [at] freedom.mtn.org [mailto:cohousing-l [at] 
>> freedom.mtn.org]On
>> Behalf Of Tom Pendleton
>> Sent: Thursday, September 23, 1999 9:54 PM
>> To: Multiple recipients of list
>> Subject: Re: [renting in cohousing]
>>
>>
>> I've got an unusual situation, perhaps, which will result in my
>> renting out my
>> unit (in Takoma Village, DC - occupancy probably in June).  I run bicycle
>> tours, which take me away well over half the time, often in big
>> chunks (like
>> during the entire summer).  TVC is looking forward to having my
>> one-bedroom
>> unit available as a rental during these times.  So rentals are not at all
>> out-of-the-question.
>>       - Tom
>>
>>
>> Denise Meier &/or Michael Jacob <dmmj [at] ncal.verio.com> wrote:
>> I clearly remember one time, when we were in the depths of financing
>> difficulties, price increases, construction uncertainties, and feeling
>> exhausted by the process and worried that my family might lose our whole
>> investment (OK, it was ONLY money, but it was a LOT of money), some
>> interested person called me to ask if there were going to be any
>> rentals, and when I said no, not immediately, anyway, got really huffy
>> about home ownership and exclusiveness, etc, etc, etc. And I got huffy
>> back, and said i couldn't see why anyone would go through what my
>> husband and I were going through to get this damn thing built in order
>> to own investment property and rent it out to someone else, and that the
>> cost of building just our own units was so high that no one wanted to
>> speculate extra cash in order to jointly provide some rental units.
>>
>> I wish it were otherwise, but with California land prices, and with the
>> model we used (self-developed), it would be difficult to find someone
>> willing to go through this in order to provide rental property for
>> someone else...(can you tell i'm still burnt out and angry at how hard
>> this turned out to be?)
>>
>> Denise Meier
>> Two Acre Wood
>> Sebastopol, CAlifornia
>>
>> PS By the way we are all in, finally, as of two weeks ago, and looking
>> forward to a whopping housewarming party this saturday. (9/25) Anyone in
>> the area is more than welcome to attend! 1-5 pm.
>> Email me for directions.
>>
>>
>>
>>
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