Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Developer Driven Cohousing

[Joelyn Malone (JKMalone]

Sharon Villines wrote:

Personally, I think the insistence on starting  
with a group of people who intend to be residents and then beginning  
the building process is over-emphasized as necessary to develop a  
community.


Cohousing Advocates has found that you don't need a group of people at 
the beginning, to find a site and a willing developer, but you do need a 
group fairly early on in the process. The nonprofit developers we've 
connected with already have site control and know what building types 
will fit the sites - but they are not willing to spend any of their own 
money doing the things that make it cohousing, until they are assurred 
of a committed group that has also put up money to make it happen.  We 
have yet to find a developer who is willing to say "Build it and they 
will come..." It takes a lot of work to put such a group together - the 
"early- in" folks still have to get to know eachother well enough that 
they feel comfortable putting money at risk - and believing that enough 
more members can be found to actually make the community happen.

Joelyn Malone
Monterey Cohousing (MN)
where we're loving having a real winter again, complete with all those 
below-zero days.