Is Cohousing Right for You?
From June 2006
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She is the co-author with Chuck Durrett of “Cohousing, A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves,” the seminal 1994 book on the entire movement. While many cost economies are realized by careful planning, the main driver for cohousing is not shaped by the desire to find a low-cost alternative to California’s pricey housing, McCamant explains. “We are finding tremendous interest in owners who want more say in a community design that balances their need for both privacy and community, created in an environmentally sensitive way.”
Two such owners are Sacramento residents Greg McAvoy-Jensen and Marty Maskall, who plan to bring more cohousing developments to this region. Like other “first movers,” defined as those who take the initiative to create new cohousing communities as opposed to joining established developments, both McAvoy-Jensen and Maskall find their commitment has been tested from the get-go.
In 2000, McAvoy-Jensen and his wife co-founded the Sacramento cohousing organization on a shoestring budget after falling in love with a Cobb Hill, Vt., cohousing community they visited. They have attracted a core group of potential owners by maintaining their website and linking to similar sites. After reviewing potential areas in West Sacramento and the Sacramento neighborhoods of Oak Park, Richards Blvd. and Tahoe Park, they decided to concentrate on Greenfair, a 30-acre redevelopment site (at Broadway and Fairgrounds Drive), due to its proximity to the downtown area and public transportation.
Burning Souls
Keeping his organization’s interest and enthusiasm high before any land is actually secured is a major challenge, McAvoy-Jensen admits. “We need to continually show up at these community meetings and make a persuasive case to the developers, Greenfair Village Partners, that our cohousing concept will serve the mandate they’ve been given,” he points out.
“There’s a part in ‘The Cohousing Handbook’ where a guy talks about the type of spirit needed to build thes e communities. He says they need a burning soul. And he’s absolutely right,” says Maskall. She has formed the Sacramento Suburban Cohousing Group and publishes site criteria on the website, as well as a survey that helps people determine their level of interest in joining her group. “You have to want this commitment very much,” says Maskall, “because you will be spending enormous amounts of time and energy searching for land, attending local government meetings and learning about zoning laws.
“In our case, that means understanding the complexities of our three target locations: the unincorporated cities of Orangevale and Fair Oaks, and the incorporated city of Citrus Heights. It’s also critical that you learn the concerns of existing residents in the community, which often means educating them about cohousing, so that you can get their buy-in early on. You don’t want your carefully nurtured initiative to be blindsided at the last minute by irate, uninformed neighbors.”
Continued...
Two such owners are Sacramento residents Greg McAvoy-Jensen and Marty Maskall, who plan to bring more cohousing developments to this region. Like other “first movers,” defined as those who take the initiative to create new cohousing communities as opposed to joining established developments, both McAvoy-Jensen and Maskall find their commitment has been tested from the get-go.
In 2000, McAvoy-Jensen and his wife co-founded the Sacramento cohousing organization on a shoestring budget after falling in love with a Cobb Hill, Vt., cohousing community they visited. They have attracted a core group of potential owners by maintaining their website and linking to similar sites. After reviewing potential areas in West Sacramento and the Sacramento neighborhoods of Oak Park, Richards Blvd. and Tahoe Park, they decided to concentrate on Greenfair, a 30-acre redevelopment site (at Broadway and Fairgrounds Drive), due to its proximity to the downtown area and public transportation.
Burning Souls
Keeping his organization’s interest and enthusiasm high before any land is actually secured is a major challenge, McAvoy-Jensen admits. “We need to continually show up at these community meetings and make a persuasive case to the developers, Greenfair Village Partners, that our cohousing concept will serve the mandate they’ve been given,” he points out.
“There’s a part in ‘The Cohousing Handbook’ where a guy talks about the type of spirit needed to build thes e communities. He says they need a burning soul. And he’s absolutely right,” says Maskall. She has formed the Sacramento Suburban Cohousing Group and publishes site criteria on the website, as well as a survey that helps people determine their level of interest in joining her group. “You have to want this commitment very much,” says Maskall, “because you will be spending enormous amounts of time and energy searching for land, attending local government meetings and learning about zoning laws.
“In our case, that means understanding the complexities of our three target locations: the unincorporated cities of Orangevale and Fair Oaks, and the incorporated city of Citrus Heights. It’s also critical that you learn the concerns of existing residents in the community, which often means educating them about cohousing, so that you can get their buy-in early on. You don’t want your carefully nurtured initiative to be blindsided at the last minute by irate, uninformed neighbors.”
Continued...
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