Cohousing-L Mailing List: Multi-place Based Community (was-Urban and rural working together )

[mark a demaio (mdemaio]

this topic is near and dear to my heart. it seems to me that some of the
next evolutionary steps in the cohousing/ community movement will be
formal connection between communities. i can envision a number of ways
this can happen and the form it could take. With the implementation of
the streamlined model and developer led projects, it may be possible that
not as many cohousing group members will  be as burnt out on the whole
process  by the time they move in, and may have energy left to help
promote the overall movement to a greater degree. also, late comers that
weren't overly burdened by the early process may have some energy to lend
to help affiliates.

potential ways of linking include:
- short term vacation leases/ exchanges
-sister community affiliations
- linking a number of fledgling multi-household homes that may not be
immediately adjacent but proximate to increase overall stability ( done
successfully by madison WI, student housing coop)
-annexing or building a satelite project nearby (retrofit, or similar to
the river city/ south side cohousing project)
-Formation or coordination with a non-profit developer, with residents
owning shares instead of units (such as EBALDCI (spelling) or the North
bay ecumenical housing corporation?)
- potentially managing a number of internally owned projects by one owner
group as an internally managed "time-share", with varied periodicity,
from vacation length, to annual, to stages of life (young income earning
family near employment centers, to retired snowbirds near recreational/
tourist type envorinoments)(benefit of no or little sales overhead
typical of time-shares)

in some of these next steps, ownership in a form other than
condo/townhouse/individual unit format may be more desireable in allowing
mobility within and between projects, and would have the financial
benefit of not requiring a property transfer (wasted money on new loans,
closing costs, etc.). I have taken a stab at this a year or two ago,
trying to bring a link together with a dilapidated ski area- but alas,
the owner of the ski area went under.

I am in the process of completing the straw bale multi-household capable
home in Concord, CA (OASIS Ecohousing) over the next few months, and will
probably be looking to sell or divest to a lower level of ownership
sometime shortly after july of 2002( for tax purposes), as i have moved
from the area. Still, the burning soul in me wants to continue to try to
realize some level of community potential and connection to this project,
as this was a guiding principle in this owner/builder proponent led
project. And as individuals, we do weigh the individual benefits in
making our community living decision.  My individuals desires would be to
be involved in MULTI-PLACE BASED COMMUNITY, so that i would have options
over my life of where to live, but still have community in my life.

Lydia's groups desire to work together instead of fracturing a group in 2
is visionary.  does anyone have any further ideas on how such links can
be formalized? might there be anyone interested in living in the San
Francisco bay area or groups interested in a satelite that would be
interested in helping form community affiliations with the small
fledgling Concord Oasis project?


>Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 22:56:01 -0700
>From: "Lydia & Ray Ducharme" <ducharm1 [at] cadvision.com>
>To: "Multiple recipients of list" <cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org>
>Subject: Urban and rural working together
>Message-ID: <008901c085ca$54f7fc40$f1475bd1 [at] cadvision.com>
>
>We are an inner city cohousing group but we have some people who are
>interested in pursuing a rural location.  We are thinking of working
>together to create close connections between the two groups.
>
>Has anyone experience with this?  How was it structured?  Where is 
>it?
>
>Thanks for any help.
>
>Susan Darby
>c/o Lydia Ducharme
>WholeLife Housing
>Calgary Canada
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