Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: co-op organization

[Audrey Watson (audrey]

Well, Winslow Cohousing is a co-op, but the shares sell at "market rate", so unfortunately we have not solved the affordability problem.   The price of a unit goes up similarly to equivalent condominiums, altho buying shares in the co-op gives you a lease to live in that unit, and then share ownership of all the commonly owned buildings and land.  
--audrey


Message: 1
Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2009 15:08:23 -0700 (MST)
From: balaji [at] ouraynet.com
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Urban Affordable Cooperative Cohousing
        Communities.
To: "Cohousing-L" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Message-ID:
        <50014.69.169.141.94.1234130903.squirrel [at] squirrel.ouraynet.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1

Ed,

Would you be able to send me a copy of your limited equity agreement? 
Thanks very much!

Charles Nuckolls
Utah Valley Commons
www.utahvalleycommons.com

> >
> > Hi,
> > Santa Rosa Creek Commons in Santa Rosa, CA is a limited-equity coop. The
> > coop 27 units on two acres near downtown Santa Rosa.
> >
> > SRCC follows California state law regarding "limited equity," which is
> > that,
> > in any given year, the share can increase in value by no more than 10% of
> > the cost of the original share price.
> >
> > Ed Flowers
> > Yulupa Cohousing
> > Santa Rosa, CA
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Fred H Olson" <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
> > To: "-cohousing-L mailing list" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
> > Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 6:41 AM
> > Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Urban Affordable Cooperative Cohousing Communities.
> >
> >
>   
> > >>
> > >> Joani Blank <joani [at] swansway.com>
> > >> is the author of the message below.  It was posted by
> > >> Fred, the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
> > >> after deleting remains of digest.
> > >> --------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------
> > >>
> > >> Joelyn, Jennifer and others,
> > >>
> > >> As far as I know, there are only three cohousing communities in the
> > >> nation that are structured as cooperatives. They are Winslow Cohousing
> > >> on Bainbridge Island in Washington, Eco-Village at Ithaca (don't know if
> > >> their two, going on three, adjacent communities are one coop or are two,
> > >> soon to be three, separate coops), and I can't remember which is the
> > >> third. Berkeley Cohousing struggled long and hard to to decide whether
> > >> to be a condo or a cooperative, and ended up getting the city to make a
> > >> new designation just for them, a limited equity condominium.
> > >>
> > >> I've heard that the main reason there are not more coop cohousing
> > >> communities is that it is extremely difficult if not impossible, to get
> > >> construction financing for a cohousing community that plans to be a
> > >> coop.
> > >>
> > >> As a person who converted her business into a worker cooperative (ask me
> > >> if you want to know more about what that is) after 15 years of sole
> > >> ownership, I'm much taken with cooperatives of all kinds (coop retail
> > >> stores ....aka consumer coops....and food coops, preschool coops,
> > >> student housing coops, agricultural coops),
> > >>
> > >> I'd dearly love to see more cohousing communities structured as coops in
> > >> large measure because then the whole group owns the community, while
> > >> each resident household owns a membership share (which costs a lot less
> > >> than it costs to purchase a cohousing condo or townhouse). This means
> > >> that it's possible for people with a wider variety of incomes to afford
> > >> to live there. And for me and some others, there are some significant
> > >> social differences as well. Many people who currently lives in cohousing
> > >> would not be attracted to cooperative ownership, for a myriad of
> > >> reasons, not the least of which is that in a coop, one's membership
> > >> share does not increase in value (no more more than a small cost of
> > >> living increase) no matter how long one lives there.
> > >>
> > >> Joani Blank
>