Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: so is it cohousing?

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Feb 8, 2007, at 12:02 AM, Rob Sandelin wrote:

> . Intention is really important, and I have
> wondered how a developer would create intention if faced with a 
> conflict
> between intention and sales. If sales are lagging, would the developer 
> hold
> on to the intention, or would they bale.

One issue is how much assuming all the risk of real estate development 
actually contributes to building community. The early groups were 
taking all the risk AND had to have enough money to pay for the 
development themselves. An experienced developer brings to the equation 
a relationship with a bank (or banks) that ensures a construction loan 
and mortgages. They also have working relationships with architects and 
lawyers and city zoning offices and permit granters.

A second issue is how early does community development have to start? 
It takes at least two years to build a multifamily complex. If the 
community development begins with the first households, how much longer 
would one want to require? When Don Tucker developed Takoma Village 
(DC) and Eastern Village (MD/DC) he hired Ann Zabaldo to market and do 
community development. You can't get more cohousing than that! She 
helped the groups from day one to write bylaws, make design decisions, 
plan units, etc. She came to every meeting. In both instances, the 
communities were involved in all the decisions they would have made 
alone if they had had no developer. With a developer it just got done 
faster and more economically because while mistakes were made, in all 
fairness, they would have been worse if people had been trying to work 
alone. The developer did make many decisions himself but there is no 
guarantee that after many months of wrangling, the group would not have 
made the same decisions when they faced reality. It is also true that 
because the group was involved the design decisions were better than 
the ones the developer wanted to make. It was a synergistic 
relationship.

The developer still has to have a construction loan and to do that he 
or she still has to have 70-75% of the families on board and signing 
contracts. And to get out of the project the final units have to be 
sold, but that is true of a community doing their own development as 
well. How many communities have taken any buyer they could find because 
those final 2 units were sitting there eating away their own household 
incomes?

Another interesting issue is who is attracted to building their own 
homes? Are these the only people who should live in cohousing? Early 
cohousing attracted a lot of Yankee-Dos -- good old Yankee spirit to 
get it done themselves, and only themselves. Doing it yourself is not 
always the best way to get things done, particularly if you have no 
experience in real estate financing or construction.

Obviously time will tell but the arguments are interesting.

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