Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Best size for Cohousing Community

[Berrins (Berrins]

In a message dated 6/15/2000 7:40:44 PM, chan [at] usa.net writes:

<< We are still trying consense on the number of families we want.  The 
experience of others would be helpful.  

1.  How many households are in your present community?  How did you decide 
upon that number?

2.  What do you believe would be the optimal number of households for a 
cohousing community? >>

1) 24 (actually, 21 in, 3 more to move in).  We've only been in for 2 1/2 
months, but all 24 families have been coming to meetings for over a year and 
an half, so we have a bunch of experience making decisions with everyone.

The original 8 families wanted around 15 or 16 households, but the cost of 
the land they eventually found drove up the number of households they needed 
to pay for it.

2) It's hard to know what's an optimal number of households.  Smaller groups 
don't have access to the resources that larger groups have, including 
material resources (lawn equipment, etc.) and human resources (e.g., 
bookeeping, administrative, group dynamics).  Too may folks and full group 
meetings become unwieldy, communication more challenging.  You may need to 
hear from both smaller and larger groups to get thier perspectives.

    Roger
    Pathways Cohousing
    Northampton, MA

        Where the first floor of the Common House has been framed, and a day 
of late June sun after about two weeks of almost constant rain has turned New 
England into a steamy jungle.