Cohousing-L Mailing List: Separating the Common House (was construction sequence)

[Robert P. Arjet (rarjet]

>
>" the possibility of building the common house before - maybe even well
>before - the individual units are built."

This reminds me of an earlier thread on getting liability insurance for
non-resident activities in the common house.  Someone wrote in that they
had dealt with that by establishing the common house as a legally separate
entity, which then rented space to residents and non-residents alike--it
just happened that resident common meals, resident committee meetings,
etc, made up the vast majority of the rentals.

What makes me think of this is that if I recall correctly, they did this
because they needed some cash flow to cover environmental repair on their
land.  I wonder if this method could be used to not only provide residents
a place to hang out and build community before the units go up, but also
help defray some of the costs.  

So, what I'm asking is, what would happen if Anyplace Cohousing bought
some land, built a large "events facility" (better known as a common
house) on that land, and then started renting it out to community groups,
girl scouts, political organizations, yoga teachers, etc.  Seeing as the
Anyplace Cohousing members would only be using it occasionally prior to
move-in, it could actually be available for rent most of the time.  Then,
as the units go up, Anyplace residents start getting priority on the
schedule, and eventually (after move-in) they make up 90% of the rentals,
and it looks like any other common house which is occasionally rented out
to friendly outsiders. 

This would seem to have three distinct advantages: 1) it allows you to
build the development in stages, so that you can stagger investment
instead of having to pony up all the money at once.  2) It keeps the
common house legally separate from the residences, which looks like it
would be very good from an insurance and liability standpoint. 3) It would
allow you to generate some cash flow through the common house, especially
in the period after it's built, but before move-in  The distinct
disadvantages might be that 1) Construction costs would probably be
increased by not doing it all at once, and 2) if the common house is
legally separate from the residences, it seems like there'd be an off
chance that it could get actually separated- i.e., some hideous court
decision in which Scrooge McDuck Ltd.  gets awarded ownership of the
common house.  

Comments?  I'm not a financially or legally-oriented person, so am I
missing anything?

Robert Arjet
Central Austin Cohousing 
www.io.com/~weaver

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