Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing article in Seattle Times

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Full text below.

On Mon, 21 May 2001, Kristina Spencer kspencer [at] drizzle.net wrote:

> 
> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134297646_cohousing21m.html
> 
> -- 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Kristina Spencer                 We are an endless moving stream
> kspencer [at] drizzle.net                in an endless moving stream.
>                                             -Jisho Warner

 Text of article from
   seattletimes.com home
   http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
                 [3]A Service of The Seattle Times Company
   Monday, May 21, 2001 - 12:09 a.m. Pacific
   
   A real feeling of community: Cohousing concept an antidote to
   society's isolation
   
   By [9]Gina Kim
   Seattle Times Eastside bureau
   
   DEAN RUTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES
   Michelle Grandy, center, and daughter, Amelia, right, gather with
   other families at Songaia.
   
   When Michelle Grandy needed some last-minute greens to balance a
   dinner, she didn't head to the grocery store. Instead, she went next
   door and borrowed broccoli from her neighbor, who wasn't home at the
   time.
   
   The part-time midwife moved into the Songaia Cohousing community near
   Bothell with her husband and 3-year-old daughter when it opened in
   November and since then, the benefits have been endless, said Grandy.
   
   "It's not just a cup of sugar," she said. "It's a lifestyle. It's a
   way of living in which you truly know your neighbors."
   
   A decade ago there was only one cohousing community in the entire U.S.
   Now Songaia is one of eight in Western Washington alone, with another
   eight on the way, including one scheduled to open in Redmond in 2003
   and two more in Seattle.
   
                           Cohousing information 
   More information about cohousing can be found at [10]cohousing.org or
    by calling 303-413-9227. To learn more about Rose Hill Cohousing, go
   to [11]rosehillcohousing.org or call 425-827-0659.
   
   More than 150 communities are currently in the planning or
   construction stage in the U.S. and Canada, according to The Cohousing
   Network, a nonprofit based in Boulder, Colo.
   
   Fifty-four are already operating, including two in Seattle and others
   in Bellingham, Port Townsend, Vashon and Bainbridge islands and
   Snohomish.
   
   "It makes sense," said Neshama Abraham Paiss, spokeswoman for the
   network. "The faster you lead your life and the more isolated you are
   because you're sitting at your computer all day, the more you would
   seek a community to counteract that isolation."
   
   Cohousing, which originated in Denmark in the late 1960s, is usually a
   community of individually owned homes clustered together to promote
   interaction. The focal point of the community is generally a common
   house where meals are eaten several times a week.
   
   Residents are expected to participate in decision-making and to
   contribute to maintenance of the property.
   
   At Songaia, 13 duplex-style, two- to three-bedroom homes painted in
   cheerful hues of green, blue, red and yellow are the core of the
   10-acre community. (The name roughly means "song of the living
   Earth.")
   
   Rows of organic vegetable crops gently slope up to the cluster of
   homes, located on a narrow street off 39th Avenue Southeast. The rest
   of the land is filled with 60-foot-tall cedars and Douglas firs, a
   meadow and a retention pond.
   
   Although attending the five weekly meals in the common house is
   optional, nearly all of the residents - 25 adults and 13 children,
   ages 2 to 65 - turned out this week for a dinner of spaghetti with
   pesto made from last year's crop of basil.
   
   Residents take turns acting as lead cook, second cook or dishwasher,
   and members of a food committee buy the ingredients with a fund
   residents pay into.
   
   At the counter in the industrial-size kitchen, the residents - some in
   suits and button-down shirts, others in jeans or leather - heaped
   steaming noodles onto their plates and carried them into the dining
   room, which is filled with round and rectangular tables.
   
   Children were running underfoot and climbing in and out of a window
   turned makeshift patio door, while adults sat in plastic chairs and
   talked about their day. On one wall was affixed the banner, "It takes
   a whole village to raise a healthy child."
   
   Karly Lubach, the night's lead cook, lived in shared housing before
   moving to Songaia. The sculptor and painter prefers cohousing because
   of the balance between community and privacy.
   
   "Getting my own kitchen was a big thing," she said.
   
   But because every decision requires a consensus among residents, it
   can take three weeks to make mundane decisions such as what type of
   flooring should go into the children's play area. Residents finally
   agreed to carpet the room.
   
   "A lot of times the discussion comes back full circle," said Scott
   Babcock, a software programmer for Bellevue-based Attachmate. "But by
   going through that process, we've come to an understanding as to why
   things are the way they are."
   
   Facility planned in Redmond 
   
   A few miles south, another group is in the beginning stages of
   creating a cohousing community. Kirkland-based Rose Hill Cohousing,
   formerly known as Equinox Cohousing, announced last month that it will
   buy more than 9 acres of wooded land off 132nd Avenue Northeast in
   Redmond for $1.65 million.
   
   Katherine Fugitt and John Dietz, two of the group's three founding
   members, decided to start the community because of the relative
   anonymity they've experienced in their leafy Kirkland neighborhood.
   
   "You go into your garage, get in your car and go to work. Then you
   drive back into your garage and close the door," said Dietz, who is a
   software-development manager for Primus Knowledge Systems in Seattle.
   "We've lived here eight years and we don't know our neighbors."
   
   Because of the way cohousing communities are designed, with parking on
   the periphery and the houses built facing each other and linked by
   sidewalks, residents will inevitably interact and get to know one
   another, said Fugitt, who is on a hiatus from earning her doctorate in
   education at the University of Washington.
   
   The couple is willing to swap their split-level, four-bedroom home for
   a smaller condominium-style house because of the friends they expect
   to make, and because of the lessons 5-year-old Kallista and
   10-month-old Drake can learn from people of all ages and all
   backgrounds.
   
   Although it took nine years to complete the Songaia Cohousing
   community - recruiting residents, dealing with zoning, density and
   septic issues, and finally designing affordable homes - Rose Hill is
   on a faster track, said Dietz.
   
   The group hired Chris ScottHanson of Bainbridge Island-based Cohousing
   Resources to manage the project.
   
   ScottHanson has helped construct more than 30 cohousing communities in
   North America and wrote "The Cohousing Handbook."
   
   "More communities are going up faster because of education," said
   ScottHanson. "We're helping people use the patterns of the ones that
   have come before and using those lessons to do it more affordably and
   with less risk."
   
   Structured as a condominium, Rose Hill Cohousing will eventually apply
   for a construction loan to build the two- to four-bedroom units
   costing from $200,000 to $350,000, as well as a common house. Owners
   will buy their units with individual mortgages.
   
   The goal is to have 25 to 30 households, a number considered small
   enough to create a tight-knit community, but large enough to afford
   privacy.
   
   To become a member, a person must attend at least three meetings to
   learn about the community and participate in the planning, from the
   design of the actual homes to deciding what common facilities should
   be built.
   
   For Dietz and Fugitt, the proposed community is much more than an
   address.
   
   "We want to build a place where we'll live for the rest of our lives,"
   said Dietz.
   
   Gina Kim can be reached at 206-464-2761 or [12]gkim [at] seattletimes.com.