Cohousing-L Mailing List: Press coverage of Pleasant Hill [CA] groundbreaking

[Raines Cohen (coho-L]

From
http://www.contracostatimes.com/partners/nf/cohousing_20000921.htm

[apparently the West County / Contra Costa Times also referenced East Bay 
Cohousing indirectly on the front page: "Another group of about a dozen 
households is looking for a site in the East Bay..."

Raines
-

Published Thursday, September 21, 2000 

Cohousing a first for Contra Costa
*       Pleasant Hill project will be an attempt by more than 60 people to 
share an ancient 'kind of human dream' of cooperative life 

DETAILS
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Information about cohousing is available from several Web sites, 
including www.cohousing.org, www.cohousingco.com and 
http://members.aol.com/dancerbarb.
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By Katie Oyan
TIMES STAFF WRITER 
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PLEASANT HILL -- They're not cultists, and they don't consider themselves 
hippies, either. They're just a bunch of people who want to live 
together, share responsibilities and get to know each other.

More than 60 adults and children -- 32 intergenerational, multi-ethnic 
households in all -- broke ground Wednesday in Pleasant Hill for what 
will be California's largest, and Contra Costa's first, cohousing 
community.

"It's a kind of a human dream, in a sense, to go back to the way humans 
lived hundreds of millions ago when we were hunters and gatherers," said 
Pat McBroom, a future resident. "Before there were cities, people lived 
in communities."

Pleasant Hill Cohousing is an energy-efficient, collaborative housing 
development in which residents, while enjoying one-to-four bedroom homes 
with private kitchens and bathrooms, will share a community room with a 
dining room, lounge, workshops and children's playroom.

There are about 50 similar communities in North America and several in 
Northern California. The country's oldest cohousing community is in 
Davis: It's 9 years old. There also are communities in Berkeley, 
Emeryville and two in Oakland. Another group of about a dozen households 
is looking for a site in the East Bay, and a Sonoma County group that 
recently secured land in Cotati is recruiting members.

Cohousing homes cost from $170,000 to $400,000 per household, said 
Kathryn McCamant of the CoHousing Co. in Berkeley. McCamant and her 
partner, Charles Durrett, are consultants and architects for the Pleasant 
Hill community. They help prospective cohabitants with everything from 
forming their groups and finding sites to creating the designs and 
understanding costs. They've worked on more than 30 such projects in the 
United States and Canada.

"The ownership (of a cohousing home) is like any other townhouse 
development with a homeowners association," McCamant said.

McCamant and Durrett imported cohousing to the United States from 
Scandinavia in the 1980s with their book, "Cohousing: A Contemporary 
Approach to Housing Ourselves."

"The really unique thing about it is that future buyers and residents are 
really involved and are co-developers in the project," McCamant said. 
"(Members of Pleasant Hill Cohousing) have been working together for 
almost a year and half, and the initial group started three years ago."

Pleasant Hill Cohousing is a far cry from the stereotypical '60s commune. 
Members, mostly from the Bay Area, include architects, educators, school 
psychologists, therapists, a violinist, Web designers and retirees.

On the outside, their community will look like ordinary condominiums, 
said Walnut Creek resident Barbara Lynch, who founded the Pleasant Hill 
group with her husband, Ted. 

"When I think of communal living, I think of sharing everything and 
putting all your resources in one basket," she said. "We're not doing 
that. We'll make the choice of what responsibilities we want to share."

Lynch, 57, said she was inspired by a magazine article a few years ago 
and started researching the architecture and fundamentals of cohousing. 
The Lynches traveled the country, researching about 10 cohousing 
communities with the idea of joining one.

"We decided we wanted to stay here," she said. In 1997, the couple 
started conducting meetings and recruiting members for their group with 
letters, fliers and newspaper advertisements.

Finding the right place to build was the biggest challenge, Lynch said. 
It took about a year and a half to land their spot, and when they did, 
their group doubled in size. The community will sit on 2.2 acres on Lisa 
Lane, adjacent to the Iron Horse Trail and Monument Boulevard. Just north 
of Fair Oaks Elementary School, the project is scheduled to be finished 
in fall 2001.

Members have been meeting weekly to discuss design and physical layout, 
using several energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly elements. For 
instance, the houses will have extra insulation and deep overhangs for 
shade. The community room will have a passive cooling tower, and the 
units will use radiant floor heating. The decks will be built from 
recycled plastic.

Hashing out the design and making financial decisions together gave 
members a chance to bond and get a sense of what it will be like to live 
near one another.

"We're already discovering whether we get along," McBroom said. "If we 
don't get along, then we drop out."

Along the way, several people who showed interest later decided the 
Pleasant Hill group wasn't for them.

"We had a couple in which the husband was much more sold on the idea than 
his wife," Lynch said. "One person lives in Blackhawk, and the 
neighborhood wasn't quite going to do it for her."

If members decide to drop out late in the game, they can sell their 
homes, she said. There are already several people on a waiting list.

Lynch said she doesn't think it's likely, but even if there are members 
who find they can't stand each other, it won't be a problem.

"The group is large enough that if there is someone you don't get along 
with, you can avoid them," she said.

Members expect to share washing machines, and some have talked about 
sharing cars, baby-sitting and other responsibilities. There will be no 
on-site parking, however, and many plan to walk or bike to the Pleasant 
Hill BART station, which is within a mile of the site. They also will 
have the option of sharing meals a few times a week. Members will team up 
to take turns cooking and cleaning.

Lynch said one of her favorite aspects of the design is that the kitchens 
will be at the fronts of the homes, so residents can look out of their 
windows and wave to passers-by. Small gestures such as making eye contact 
make for a friendlier environment, she said.

As for privacy, Lynch said residents have talked about working out a 
system for dropping hints when they want to be left alone -- such as 
closing the blinds to say "Don't come over."

Now that designs have been chosen, Lynch said members will have plenty of 
time to discuss other details. "It's in the hands of the professionals 
now," she said.

McBroom, a journalist at UC Berkeley who has studied anthropology, grew 
up in a similar community in Sacramento.

"I never really wanted to live in a detached family home," she said. "The 
overwhelming benefit is having a community where you know each other and 
can depend on each other. Neighborhoods are no longer neighborhoods. 
People don't often know who their neighbors are. Learning how to live 
with people in a community is a skill we're losing. I think this is the 
next stage for recovering a community."

McBroom lives in the Oakland hills and is anxious to move in.

"I love the hills, but I take community over the view," she said.

Katie Oyan covers Pleasant Hill. Reach her at 925-943-8011 or 
koyan [at] cctimes.com.


Raines Cohen <coho-L [at] raines.com> <http://www.swansway.com/>
Finally living in community -- worth the wait!

  Member, Old Oakland [CA] Cohousing at Swan's Market
Which survived a member's CH event with more than 60 guests.

  Member, East Bay Cohousing [no site yet] <http://www.ebcoho.org/>
Which is actively searching for sites in the Berkeley/Oakland area.