Cohousing-L Mailing List: New cohousing group sought for downtown Oakland, CA site!

[Joani Blank (joani]

No new-build cohousing has happened in the immediate San Francisco Bay 
Area for more than a decade! Will the site described here be next?  Bay 
Areans may want to attend this meeting. If you are unable to attend 
because you live outside the area, but wish to be kept "in the loop" for 
whatever happens next, please email me, Joani Blank at joani [at] swansway.com

Joani



Are you a future resident of a new-build cohousing community in downtown 
Oakland close to BART, City Hall, The new "Uptown" neighborhood, and the 
First Unitarian Church of Oakland?

You are receiving this meeting notice because we know you to be 
interested in, and at least somewhat knowledgeable about, cohousing. You 
probably already know that it takes time, energy and money contributed 
by the future-resident group to get a cohousing community built. And you 
also know that that finding suitable sites at a reasonable cost in the 
bay area has been  very difficult for many years.. So when a site like 
the one described here becomes available, we're inclined to jump at the 
chance to see if a future resident group (as well as some outside 
investors) can be assembled.

It has come to our attention that a downtown Oakland development site 
already entitled with planning approvals for 40 market rate residential 
condos is for sale at a very reasonable cost.  The site is on 14th 
Street, between MLK and Jefferson Streets, just five blocks away from 
Swan's Market Cohousing with which many readers of this notice will be 
familiar.  The approved plans are available for your viewing at: 
http://www.632fourteenth.com/. 

When looking at the floor plans, right away we started to think about 
how, with some relatively minor design changes, the square footage 
currently planned for 2 or 3 units on either Level 1 or Level 7 could be 
converted to a common house including 715 square feet of outdoor space 
on either level.

We sent Cohousing Partners (the development arm of the former Cohousing 
Company) this info, and Katie McCamant responded  "......I'd love to 
work with a group that is ready to take advantage of this opportunity. . 
. but need someone else to initiate the community."  That means  "a 
community  ready to jump in and put up some money to tie up the site." 

So we decided to call a meeting to bring together those who would like 
to explore starting a future-resident group for this site. That meeting 
will be held in the common house at *Swan's Market Cohousing, 930 Clay 
Street * (just two blocks from 12th Street. BART) on *Friday, July 10, 
between 5:30 and 7:30 pm.*  Persons not wishing to live in cohousing, 
but who might consider investing such a project are also most welcome.

Due to the economic downturn there are now more East Bay sites available 
at reasonable cost than in the past couple of decades. And there is good 
reason to believe that another suitable  site would  be significantly 
easier to find now than it would have been as recently as a couple of 
years ago, if for some reason the site we'll be looking at on the 10th 
doesn't work out.

Joani Blank
Cohousing Enthusiast, Resident of Swan's Market Cohousing.

Raines Cohen and Betsy Morris
Cohousing Coaches, East Bay Cohousing

Optional RSVP here:  http://www.meetup.com/ebcoho/calendar/10796927/ . 
Or email or call Joani at 510-834-7399