Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: "Second Home" Cohousing Communities

[Deborah Mensch (deborahmensch]

This thread has been raising a question in my mind. Cohousing is normally
managed, and partly/largely maintained through the labor of, its residents.
If a large number of the residents in a coho community are only there
part-time (and it's either their I'm-busy work time, as in a D.C.
pied-a-terre, or their I'm-relaxing-now vacation time, as in a vacation
home), how do you get the critical mass of residents to come to the meetings
that management normally involves, or to contribute to the physical upkeep
of the property?

I suppose that owners could decide either to contribute labor to the upkeep
or to pay additional fees to cover hiring some of the work out, as in some
buyout systems in existing communities. But how do you deal with the
decision-making? Would it be necessary to hire a management company to take
care of things that cohousing HOAs normally handle or decide?

I think whether you wanted a community to be self-managed might determine
whether you'd want the community to be all part-time/second-home owners or
just a few part-timers in a mostly full-time community. Either way, as a
current resident of an all-full-time community, it's a little hard for me to
imagine feeling the same sense of community and shared responsibility with
part-time residents that I do with my current neighbors. And that's perhaps
the more important point -- not getting people to the meetings or having
them doing the work per se, but experiencing the sense of community that
these activities can help engender (along with other experiences of fun and
mutual support).

I acknowledge my limited perspective here. Do others have ideas or
experiences that might illuminate how this might work well?

-Deborah Mensch
Pleasant Hill Cohousing
Pleasant Hill, California

On 5/12/06, gary [at] thewoodlandcommunity.com <gary [at] 
thewoodlandcommunity.com>
wrote:
> Martin Sheehy and Sharon Villines have responded favorably to my
> question about whether there may be a market for "Second Home"
> cohousing communities within weekend commuting distance of people's
> primary homes, especially if the primary homes are located in urban
> areas and the second homes are located in more quiet, natural or rural
> settings. I would like to hear from more readers on this topic.
>
> ...
>
> Let me ask whether readers think that it would be better to experiment
> with this special type of cohousing community that involved "existing"
> cohousers living in urban areas or with urban residents in general?
> Any suggestions about marketing such a second home cohousing community?
> My sense is that developing them in areas within weekend communiting
> distance of communities housing major universities would be effective.
> What do you think?
>
>
> Gary A. Storm
> Founder
> The Woodland Community
> Sunrise Beach, MO
> Gary [at] thewoodlandcommunity.com
> + 1 (217) 367-0879