Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing Developers

[katie-henry (katie-henry]

Sarah from the UK wrote me directly since I'm the EVC contact on the FIC site. 
(And I still haven't responded. Sorry, Sarah.) So I will take the liberty of 
clarifying her question.

They are trying to determine the pros and cons of the following two approaches: 

(1) The "conventional" model, where a group forms and then partners with a 
developer to find a site and build a building, with some amount of financial 
participation and risk from the group members, vs. (2) The "developer-driven" 
model, where a developer finds and acquires a site that seems suitable for 
cohousing, then organizes the group around the site and gets the group members 
involved in design and community-building from the beginning. The developer 
puts up most of the money and takes most of the risk. In cohousing developer 
circles, this is also called the Don Tucker model (he's the developer in Eco 
Housing, and he's the only one to do it on a large scale, and more than once).

There was a lot of discussion about this a few months ago. 

Katie
Eastern Village Cohousing
Silver Spring, MD