Cohousing-L Mailing List: Building a More Sustainable Community

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Chris Hansen chris [at] cohousingresources.com
is the author of the message below but due to a problem 
it was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager:  fholson [at] cohousing.org

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The following article is coming out in the Sep. issue of Hopedance.   I
thought everyone would like to see this.  It's really good, and I think well
written.

Chris




Building a More Sustainable Community:
It's Easy and It's Not


by Nancy Scott & Mike Swettenam

Walking around in any recently built neighborhood, it's easy to become a
critic of the sustainability of modern community developments.  Put
yourself in the place of today's developer, and one quickly sees it's
much easier to "talk" than to "walk the talk".

Last October, a determined group of intrepid community builders (we
named ourselves the Oak Creek Commons cohousing group) set out on the
journey to create a sustainable community neighborhood in Paso Robles,
CA.  To do this, we would need to bridge the gaps between visions of
human structures in harmony with nature, what is affordable, and what is
acceptable to The Bank -- which has a significant say in what is
allowable in home development construction to qualify for a loan.

As those who have gone before can attest, such as the Tierra Nueva
cohousing community in Oceano, CA., there are a few easy decisions when
it comes to creating a sustainable housing project. Often the choice
between economics (affording that home) and vision (of a cleaner,
greener habitat) is a painful one.

But, some decisions are simple.  Inherent in cohousing design is the
aspect of a pedestrian community.  Having a pedestrian oriented
community means cars are kept to the periphery of the site in clustered
parking with access to homes via footpaths.  This eliminates a multitude
of roads and driveways to individual houses.  This way the land can be
used for gardens or left in a natural state rather than being covered
with asphalt and concrete.  In order to leave even more land untouched,
all of us in the Oak Creek Commons project agreed to located 31 parking
spaces in a structure under the "common house" (community activity
building).

Designing for increased interaction amongst neighbors is another core
principle of cohousing that encourages sustainability.  By clustering
our 31 homes to increase interaction, we will preserve in its natural
state, 10 of the 14.4 acres purchased for the project.  Over 1,400
native blue oak trees and a small creek -- home to many frogs, cattails
and watercress -- will be protected.  Previous developments planned for
62 homes on the property and called for removing 160 oak trees.  By
clustering homes, the Oak Creek Commons development will not have to cut
down any trees.

The heightened community interaction among neighbors in cohousing also
provides for an aspect of sustainability that people often forget.  A
major threat to the sustainability of life on our planet is the
ubiquitous use of our cars.  Studies of cohousing have shown that
cohousers have significantly less car trips per person than people
living in more traditional forms of housing.

Why is this?  In cohousing, the book club, discussion group and yoga
class is just down the path at the "common house"; no car trip is
required.  Cohousing neighbors easily meet up for car pools to local
events or shopping.  For us future residents of Oak Creek Commons, it
will be even easier to reduce the number of car trips we make.  In
addition to the lack of need to travel for social interaction, our site
is just a ten minute walk through the woods to shopping, the farmers'
market, and public transport.

>From here, our journey towards sustainability gets a bit more
difficult. At times the lines identifying the sustainable choice are not
always clear.  For example, choosing building materials.

While wood, a natural material, is most often used in home construction
-- it's not a very sustainable choice in this area.  Not only are the
trees for lumber not locally grown, the sun drenched climate of Paso
Robles reduces the long term life of outside wood products.  And wood is
highly susceptible to termites -- whose removal has all sorts of
negative impacts on the environment.  Other building choices, such as
steel framing and recycled plastic, take lots of energy to create and
add pollution when created.  However, homes built with these materials
can outlive generations of inhabitants.

Strawbale construction is an excellent environmental choice and was
considered for our homes at Oak Creek Commons.  But, strawbale homes
need more land to build upon due to the size of bales and that this type
of construction is best suited for single story homes.  So, would it be
more sustainable to make space for fewer strawbale homes by cutting down
oak trees or to preserve the native oak woodlands and use less
environmentally friendly building materials?

Where is the Sustainability God when you need the answers?

Our group has been pondering other sustainable options.  If price, bank
requirements and city codes were no object, our homes would have bamboo
flooring, wool rugs, cabinets made from responsibly harvested hardwoods,
on demand water heating systems, composting toilets, and photovoltaics
on our roofs to supply all of our electricity needs and even sell it
back to the grid.  The list could go on and on.

The economic reality probably will be that we choose a less sustainable
method in one area to fund a more sustainable one in another.  These
will not be easy choices to make -- especially within the diversity of
minds that 31 households are likely to produce.  Guiding us is our
desire to make responsible environmental choices and consider the impact
of our decisions on the next seven generations -- just as the Iroquois
did.

The decisions towards living more  sustainable that our community makes
will not end as we finish development.  Living in a cohousing community
is an on-going process of collaborative decision making.  Daily living
decisions such as buying  food in bulk as a community; planting gardens,
edible landscape, and orchards; mowing small grass spaces with a human
powered mower, and regeneration of our oak woodlands will continue to
challenge the community to live more sustainable.

While others from the outside may find it easy to critique the
sustainability of our community choices, the challenge will be to our
members to consciously weigh the choices and live with the impacts of
those choices on ourselves, our earth home, and future generations.


Nancy Scott and Mike Swettenam are founding members of the Oak Creek
Commons cohousing project in Paso Robles, CA.  They can be reached at
(805) 239-2872 or OakCreekCC [at] webtv.net.

Nancy Scott &
Mike Swettenam
Membership Outreach

Contact us!!
*****************************************
Web Site:  http://cohousing.urbaneden.net
Email:  OakCreekCC [at] webtv.net
805-239-2872 (weekdays)
805-239-4597 (evenings & weekends)