Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: [C-L] Developers

[Katie Henry (katie-henry]

Weighing in from Eastern Village to clarify some recent points:
Michael wrote:
> I believe there are communities where the majority of the ultimate  
owners
> did not participate in the early struggles - Eastern Village comes  
to mind -
> though the developer(s) there already had very significant cohousing
> experience.
Bruce wrote:
> Unlike a traditional cohousing community that starts with a group,  
or a
> developer driven community that is built and then sold to members,
> this model starts with the developer finding a good location,  
securing
> the land, and then assisting interested individuals in forming a  
group.
Eastern Village was developed using the third model described by  
Bruce. Our developer (Don Tucker, of Eco Housing) found and acquired  
the site, then worked with Ann Zabaldo to form the group. We had a  
significant number of committed buyers (maybe 70%?) well before the  
project broke ground. We were deeply involved in the design of the  
common house and the units. We had plenty of early struggles, although  
nothing on the scale of putting up large amounts of our own cash to  
buy land and select/hire development professionals.
In cohousing circles, this model is what's meant by developer-driven  
cohousing. A community that is built and then sold to members isn't  
really cohousing at all, given that one of the defining  
characteristics of cohousing is that the group works with the  
architect to program and design the community before it is built,  
which is indeed, as Michael pointed out, a huge community-building  
function.
Katie
Eastern Village Cohousing
Silver Spring, MD