Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Communities with a low-cost/affordability focus?

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Aug 28, 2014, at 12:47 AM, Dane Laverty <danelaverty [at] gmail.com> wrote:

> Sharon, that's interesting about Maine. Is there anything specific to Maine
> that encourages building in stages like that, or could it be done anywhere?

I'm sure it could be done elsewhere. The reason it has developed in Maine (and 
my friends did this in the 1980s) is that "everyone" wants to move to Maine and 
land was available.

> When I think back to Boy Scout summer camps, those were kind of like the
> sort of tiny-house cohousing community I imagine. All the scouts stayed in
> little cabins, and there was a big central mess hall that provided
> facilities. I understand that most cohousing uses a condominium-style legal
> structure -- do you know if any have been built using a summer-camp-style
> structure?

My college used to rent an old Rockefeller "summer camp" with the same style. A 
big Victorian house with lots of outbuilding where people stayed. The family 
would have each had a cabin. Some very small and others larger--sort of like 
bedroom suits. They also had an outdoor bowling lane that was probably built in 
the late 1800s.

My first vision of collaborative housing was in the mid 1970s when I stumbled 
on a ski lodge for sale in Vermont that had a large house surrounded by 8-10 
smaller cottages. When I tried to find interested people, however, no one 
believed it could work without commitment to an ideology that would hold 
everyone together.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org