Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Developer driven cohousing?

[Ann Zabaldo (zabaldo]

I work for Eco Housing Corporation, the developer of Takoma Village
Cohousing in Washington DC (yup!  we're right in the city!)  I also live in
the community.  Twenty seven month time line altho' we still have workmen on
site fixing punch list and warranty items and our CH is not quite finished
altho' we can use it.  Our landscaping will go in as soon as it warms up.

We had a VERY active design team from our membership and our developer
enjoyed working w/ them throughout the process.  It wasn't always a smooth
relationship but the commitment to building the community was a shared
vision that kept things on track.

Our design team from our membership is enormously talented.  When they
proposed anything to the developer or architect, they educated themselves
completely about the subject first.   They found out everthing about the
cost, installation procedures, durability, whatever was required.  The DT
members often educated the bricks n' mortar people!!  The DT, in fact, did a
lot of work on the research side that the folks on the construction end did
not have to do.  Design Team members spend anywhere from 5 to 20 hours EACH
per week on design issues for TVC.  And they've done this for more than two
years.  Staying on the developer's time line is another positive aspect of
the relationship.  Asking for changes that slow down that time line is
problematic because the developer has money he/she is risking and time is
definitely money in the building trades!

This kind of involvement is very helpful to the architect and developer.
But I have a feeling this level of commitment by members is rare because of
the amount of time it takes to become competent in design and building
materials issues.

So my guess is that developers/architects and other professionals who work
in cohousing who experience a group as requiring more work from them  as in
constant demands/requests to "check out ___for us" would be likely to desire
limiting this aspect of the process.   Had it not been for the work
commitment demonstrated by the DT members to educate themselves and our
community (another process DT eliminated from the developer's workload) I
think our developer would have circumscribed involvment, too.  As it is,
it's been a positive experience and the developer welcomes involvement.

Now, we're working w/ some other communities and I think we'll see some
differences in the work relationship between the community and the developer
simply because people are different in different communities and their level
of involvement will be different.

Ann Zabaldo

Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington, DC. -- America's
Hometown!
----- Original Message -----
From: <cjsheehan [at] juno.com>
To: "Multiple recipients of list" <cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org>
Sent: Monday, February 05, 2001 11:26 PM
Subject: Developer driven cohousing?


> Now that Sonora Cohousing in Tucson is nearly completed our project
> manager (who is also a resident) has informed us that himself, our
> builder and our developer (all separate people and companies) are
> planning on starting another "cohousing" community in Tucson.  This
> "cohousing" community is obviously not future resident driven and I know
> that at least two of these individuals have strong ideas about limiting
> the resident involvement during the pre- and construction phase.  My
> question is, is this in fact a cohousing community?  Are there other
> communities out there that were started by people other than the
> residents (developer driven)?
>
> Jenny Sheehan
> Sonora Cohousing
> Tucson, Arizona
> Where the wildflowers are blooming and our pool is well on its' way to
> being completed by the time our hot summer arrives!
>