Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Eastern Village Cohousing [was: Sociocracy

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Jessie Handforth Kome,  Eastern Village Cohousing Dahako [at] aol.com
is the author of the message below. 
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Hi-

Ummmm.  Good questions all, but we don't yet have answers for all of them. 
Eastern Village is an adaptive re-use of a four-story commercial building 
located on the Montgomery County, Maryland side of the DC/Maryland line.  The 
building is constructed in a U shape with the base of the U away from the 
street and the central courtyard opening onto the street (Eastern Avenue).  

Most of the residential units will be in the sides of the U and the common 
spaces will be in the base of the U.  The project will also have gardens on 
the roof.  The ground floors have high ceilings (12-14').  The developer 
plans to cut through the concrete between floors for some of the units, 
creating 2-story apartments he's calling lofts.  He also uses the term "loft" 
to describe the design style for the whole project.  The structure includes 
about 10,000 square feet for art/design studios (the project is in an Arts 
and Technology district which provides a tax credit for such uses).  The 
Metro station is close by. And the building adjoins a county parking garage 
where residents can rent monthly spaces.  

For the most part, the unit mix will be set by the resident mix.  When the 
developer started the project, he presented a mix of units heavy on the 1- 
and 2-bedroom sizes. Then we joined (traditional family of 4) and asked for a 
4-bedroom unit.  Then several members asked for 3-bedroom units.  And so on.  
The current unit mix, with about 20 units spoken for, includes more larger 
units and has a unit total around 51 or so.  Still subject to change, of 
course.  Most of the people who have joined are singles or couples without 
kids (or with grown kids).  There are a few single parents.  The public 
school district is excellent (my kids already happily attend the elementary 
and middle schools serving the site) so we may attract more families.

The unit sizes are comparable to other condos in our area.  I think the 
smallest one-bedroom unit will be around 650 sqft.  I think the four-bedroom 
units are in the 1400-1700 sqft range right now.  Last I heard, one-bedroom 
units are single story; other sizes are available in loft or flat.  (The 
developer has already figured out a way to make every room wheelchair 
accessible.)

I think one way to deal with the scale of the project is to think of the 
project as two cohousing groups (one on each side of the U) sharing common 
facilities. We could work as one large group as needed and function as two 
groups day-to-day.  Maybe two dining clubs splitting common house time?  Or 
maybe not.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this all plays out.  

later-

Jessie Handforth Kome
Eastern Village Cohousing
Silver Spring, Maryland
http://home.att.net/~easternvillage/
Where we're on an extremely fast timeline - the architect is showing us floor 
plans this week!  





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