Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: chicken club, garden club

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Jun 16, 2005, at 11:03 AM, Jeanne Goodman, JP Cohousing wrote:

> In JP Cohousing in Boston we created an office users group. This 
> "club" paid to have semi-common space designed and fitted out. Part of 
> the space, services and features will be available to the community as 
> community office and meeting room space. The members of the user group 
> will pay a monthly fee. Part of it will go to pay off our loan to the 
> member who fronted the money for the construction and part of it will 
> go to pay the community a smallish condo fee for using the space and 
> electricity and rubbish removal and such.

I would like to hear how this works. We want a copier on site but 
copiers are high maintenance items, as are computers and printers, and 
need intelligent use. Our copier died and we can't agree to replace it 
-- a money pit. A more organized office in which people are working 
regularly would get better supervision and have better equipment.

I know Kraus and Fitch have a similar arrangement with their offices.

The ratio that can be used for determining the fee could be the same 
one used for condominiums based on square footage. Essentially the 
garden at Rosewind has become a limited common element shared by 
residents of several units. It could be valued the same way other 
limited common elements are.

Sharon
-----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org