Ecovillage New Jersey

Thanks to Peter Sullivan for passing this along:

From: NextworldTV <newsletter@nextworldtv.com>
Date: Fri, Aug 21, 2015 at 9:09 AM
Subject: Cohousing Planned With Town of Boulder, CO
To: Peter <mrpjsullivan@gmail.com>

Peter

At the Wild Sage co- housing development in Boulder, Colorado, the future residents co-ordinated with the town for an 8 year planning period to create an intentional community within a new housing development.

An intentional cohousing group, in effect, jump started a whole new urbanist community for 330 homes. Continue reading →

On April 24 there was a featured article on the editorial page of the New York Times about how cohousing might be a desirable option for single people. It ends, though, by saying: “. . . homes that combine privacy with community and sociability . . . that combination sounds pretty attractive for anybody . . .”

The article should have mentioned that there is no such option, yet, in the whole New York metropolitan area! That’s why we’re confident that, if we can get our ecovillage built, there will be considerable demand to purchase units and become part of such a unique community.

Here are excerpts from the New York Times article:

While many single people are quite happy to live alone, it’s not always easy. When Kate Bolick first lived in her own apartment, she said, “it felt unbelievably exciting to be simply living by myself and master of my own domain. But then maybe at around the seven-year mark it started to feel kind of repetitive and lonely.”

Many single people relish their autonomy and don’t necessarily want to be part of a couple. But some would like another option, a way to have companionship without entering into a romantic relationship. That might mean roommate groupings more stable than the 20-something variety. Or it might mean a larger community that mixes shared and individual space. “Cohousing” communities around the country typically include private homes surrounding a common house where residents can gather for meals and other activities.

Americans who want to live communally face obstacles like zoning laws — and housing designed for nuclear families. Removing some of the barriers would give our growing population of single people the opportunity, at least, to decide if living with other people works for them. It might also encourage Americans in general to think more creatively about our homes, our cities and our social networks. Many single people want homes that combine privacy with community and sociability. That combination sounds pretty attractive for anybody, single or not.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/opinion/what-the-single-ladies-have-wanted-for-more-than-a-century.html

Download our latest brochure: RegenerativeCohousing (2Apr2015)

From Jonathan Cloud and Victoria Zelin:

While we’re working hard on what we expect to be an avalanche of PACE projects once the new law is passed, we’ve been giving serious consideration to where and how we might want to live during this next few years of our lives. Like many others in our age group, we’re officially “empty-nesters,” and are looking to live “more lightly” on the land. We’d also like to be part of a genuine community, where we have deeper relationships with our neighbors, and can work together to bring about more rapid social change.

This has led us to a growing interest in intentional communities, ecovillages, and cohousing. The most practical and least controversial of these is cohousing, where a small neighborhood of 10-35 families share a large common facility, and live in smaller-footprint individual homes around this common space

Cohousing

Cohousing itself is not new; pioneered in Denmark in the 1970s, it was introduced into the U.S. by Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett more than 35 years ago. There are more than 700 cohousing neighborhoods in Denmark today, many in other European countries as well as Australia and New Zealand, and close to 150 in the United States, with another hundred or so in various stages of development.

New Jersey is something of an anomaly in having no completed cohousing developments. In our view there is considerable interest and potential for development. And it is a uniquely appropriate vehicle for the kinds of “regenerative community solutions” we are seeking to introduce to NJ communities in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.

Creating diverse, walkable, and socially cohesive neighborhoods is worthwhile in itself, but it takes on a larger purpose in the context of a regenerative vision for local communities. Cohousing neighborhoods can serve as vehicles for innovation in designing a sustainable future, and then sharing the most successful outcomes.
Continue reading →