Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: commercial ventures as part of cohousing

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

Marsh Commons, I think its called, in Arcata California, shares it
commonhouse with a couple of businesses. Their commonhouse was a recycled
auto shop business, which came with their site, and as I recall was not
attached directly to the housing.  Last time I was there, which was several
years ago, they had a massage therapist, a family counselor and a bicycle
shop all using one end of their commonhouse. Their commonhouse is divided,
there is a corridor and door which goes from the businesses to the
commonhouse which if remember  right was locked, with one of the business
owners having a key, based on agreement as she used some aspect of their
commonhouse (might have been the laundry but I don't recall) and paid a bit
extra in rent.  The business side of their commonhouse faced a street in the
town and so the businesses were on the street side, the community building
part was accessed through the community, with no street entrance if I
remember right. They also had a large sort of shop space that further
separated the commercial side of the building.

I thought the way they separated the two functions seemed to work really
well for them, and the income they made in leasing was a nice additional
bonus. The nature of the businesses they leased to seemed to be very
non-impact. But, keep in mind, since cohousing requires mortgages, most
commonhouses seem to get much less use during the working hours of the day,
and so a day busy business which closes at 5pm may not be much of a problem
for cohousing.  I think if you set your lease criteria to management noise,
odor impact, you could do well with having a  business end to your building.

Rob Sandelin
South Snohomish County at the headwaters of Ricci Creek
Sky Valley Environments  <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm>
Field skills training for student naturalists
Floriferous [at] msn.com


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