Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Community Size

[Rick Gravrok (rick.gravrok]

Hello, Here at Monterey Cohousing Community (in a Minneapolis suburb: St.
Louis Park right next to the lakes) we have 15 households. It would be
better with another half-dozen or so, IMO. Actually, we had planned for 24
units but didn't have the buyers so we built only seven town homes, those
plus the 8 apartments in the main building make up our fifteen.

IF someone were passionate about building another 5 or so here (we had that
platted out) it could maybe happen if a bunch of folks were willing to buy
in and do the development work.

We have a new family with 2 young boys (3 & 5 Years old) and getting more
kids again (we had 12) would be great for they certainly add life to
community living.

We do have a lot of common space (20 rooms) and 2+ acres of land.

<http://www.montereycohousing.org/>

Check us out, or spread the word,

            And have a great co-Fall everyone!

Rick Gravrok

On Fri, Sep 12, 2014 at 10:34 AM, Muriel Kranowski <murielk [at] vt.edu> wrote:

>
> Another consideration about size is that over time, some people may "retire
> on the job" - they still live in the community but have stopped
> participating or dwindled to very little participation. Usually people who
> stop feeling the love leave, but sometimes they stay, as owners if not as
> residents.
>
> In a  very small community, if you had just enough pairs of hands to do the
> expected workshare from the git-go, it will become darned near impossible
> without those folks. Even if you have a system where members pay money for
> skipping work duties, it won't be possible to do everything you expected to
> do based on everyone stepping up and volunteering.
>
> We have 3 nonparticipant households, but the other 30 are active and we're
> still fully functioning. I think it would be tough to sustain a healthy,
> satisfying cohousing life with just a few other households to pick up the
> slack.
>
> But I agree with Sharon that there's a thing as too big. The 25-35 range
> sounds right to me.
>      Muriel
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-- 
Rick Gravrok
St. Louis Park, MN