Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: No Parking

[Raines Cohen (rc3-coho-L]

>Does anyone know of any urban communities without any on-site
> parking
> (we have street parking available). If so, were there any problems selling
> the units due to this?

Kristin,

The sample base in cohousing is small, and biased towards rural/suburban,
plus a median age of community of more than seven years ago (which means
they were planned/approved at least 2-3 years before that), so it may not
have the best examples for you. There's been a rapid shift in values and
policies in this field in the past decade, but it is uneven. Given that
not every community participates on this list, you may not find the info
you're looking for here, although I see that the Eastern Village folks
have chimed in, and that's the closest example I can think of.

You're in an urban community with an urban infill site in a progressive
town in a progressive state, so you might be able to find examples from
the recent development there... on my last visit this year, I saw lots of
dense projects completed and still going up on the NW side of downtown;
the parking was well-concealed, but probably exists... their sales
experience (time and prices) might be valuable. Areas near college
campuses provide more examples you can draw on.

Swan's Market Cohousing, where I was a member for a few years during
development and for a few years in residence (primarily 2000-2003) and
then a few years as an absentee landlord, is in the heart of the Old
Oakland neighborhood of downtown Oakland, CA. It has just one (semi-secure
common garage indoors) space per unit, and all nearby parking is metered;
there's a pay lot several stories up across the street, over the
convention center. I didn't have a car when I lived there and rented out
my space to a neighbor family with two kids and two jobs for $100/month,
at first in barter for their services helping build out shelving in my
storage space. Other neighbors with two cars (about 5 of the 20
households) rented spaces in the commercial-rental garage below our units
(with its pedestrian door right in front of our front gate, it is nearly
as handy as our own garage). At least one other neighbor did not own a car
at the time, and rented out her space. City CarShare has a pod right out
front, and others a few blocks away, making it an easy option for some
trips, although only a couple of neighbors joined (just last month they
expanded membership rate plans to make the service much more viable for
long and/or overnight trips). The main connection-hub subway station is a
block away, a 12 minute ride to downtown San Francisco or Berkeley, and I
know many neighbors commuted that way; a few biked.

Here at Berkeley Cohousing, there's just one space per unit, outdoors,
nonassigned. Valuation hasn't been an issue because our prices are
voluntarily capped to preserve affordability, making current prices about
50% below market.

Have you surveyed your members as to their current and planned car usage?
Looked at the price of parking options in the neighborhood? Gotten
ammunition/examples from your local car sharing agencies? Bicycle
coalitions? San Francisco may have some examples... perhaps downtown
Berkeley (CA) does as well.

Appraisers are justifiably jittery in a turning market that may have been
propped up, in part, through their overvaluations, so I wouldn't be
surprised to see them look for written backup for anything "nonstandard".
The more you can show them committed/co-investing, pre-approved buyers who
are not deterred by the lack of parking, the easier it will be to make
your case and for the appraiser to feel a nice warm glow of CYA.

You might consider as a community leasing a set of parking spaces for a
year, getting a group discount, and using that to help people transition;
perhaps if membership dues included transit passes, bicycle commuting
support, and/or carshare group/organizational membership, that might also
help make your case.

Raines Cohen, Cohousing Coach
Planning for Sustainable Communities
at Berkeley (CA) Cohousing
Where I'm facilitating today's HOA meeting with lots of time for budget
discussion and a peek at the power of internal wikis for committee and
group operations; there may be some energy related to a neighbor planning
to get a dog.

Facilitator, East Bay Cohousing
http://www.ebcoho.org/
Where we're doing a live viewing party for Monday's Webinar with Katie
McCamant on Financing Cohousing near Ashby BART - join us! A few seats
still left, and acres of whiteboard walls for us to improvise and
collaborate and share insights during the call, at a lovely facility,
Berkeley Coworking: http://www.berkeleycoworking.com/

Regional Organizer, Northern California Cohousing
http://www.norcalcoho.org/
Just back from visits yesterday to Muir Commons (Davis, CA, where they
certainly know from "bicycle-friendly") and Nevada City Cohousing (nice
re-paint job on the Common House, folks!), delivering free compact
fluourescent lightbulbs in biodegradable bags, courtesy of the Sierra Club
and PG&E... I've given away 1,000 to Northern California Cohousers out of
the million they are distributing), plus 2 tromps across (and up and up
and down and down) the Wolf Creek Village site with an Auburn Cohousing
organizer (and impromptu lunch with membership teams of both the
intergenerational Wolf Creek Commons and the senior-centric Wolf Creek
Lodge), a breakfast with a former planning director and a new community
creator and a visit to a potential site near a transit hub.