Concord Village Web Site - Cohousing Community
FAQ's

Concord Ecovillage - Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked QuestionsSome questions below have not yet been decided by the
group, so we have given experience from other cohousing communities.

QUESTIONS...
(Some questions below have not yet been decided by the group, so we have given answers based on experiences from other cohousing communities.)

Q1:  What is “building green”, and how green will the homes be?
Answer:
We hope to be able to heat and cool our homes using proven technology that uses no fossil fuels. There are several cohousing communities that we are learning from that successfully use geothermal heat pumps, which we plan to use. The heat pumps would be powered by electricity generated by wind but not by our community. Our homes will also be highly insulated to save energy, and we plan to use sustainable building techniques and materials as much as possible.
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Q2: What is the difference between cohousing and an ecovillage?
Answer:
The terms are very close, but both are loosely defined. Not all cohousing
communities are ecovillages, and vice versa. Many are. We will be both, so if you
read cohousing below, you can think ecovillage, too.
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Q3:  If I live in Concord Ecovillage, will I have my own kitchen?
Answer:
Yes, each residence will have a fully equipped, spanking new private kitchen.
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Q4:  What is the advantage to children of living in Concord Ecovillage?
Answer:
Many! Cohousing communities are very safe because of their design with many
homes facing the central green walkway. No cars are allowed there, so it’s a safe
place to play, and there are many eyes on the children. Strangers are immediately noticed. Many cohousers let their children roam freely around the neighborhood because most people in the community interact with and watch out for the children. The variety of skills and interest in one’s neighbors means that there are many adults to teach skills that the parents might not have. Some communities have home schooling opportunities, also.
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Q5:  What about safety and security?
Answer:
Because we know all our neighbors, we will have an excellent neighborhood watch system as a natural part of our community. "All eyes on the common areas" means that some cohousers even feel very comfortable leaving their front doors unlocked. Cohousing communities, by their nature and design, are probably among the safest kinds of communities in the country.
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Q6: How does cohousing differ from other "intentional communities?"
Answer:
Some people involved with cohousing like to describe their communities as
"intentional neighborhoods," rather than "intentional communities." This is probably because the term "intentional community" frequently connotes a shared religious, political or social ideology rather than simply the desire to have much more of a sense of community with their neighbors, some of whom might be quite different from themselves. Concord Ecovillage espouses no particular ideology.
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Q7:  Does cohousing imply spending lots of time in long meetings?
Answer:
No. Meetings are purely voluntary. Of course, the more of your time and energy
you put into meetings, the more influence you will have on the community’s
decisions. There will be many opportunities for you to have input on decisions. We try to make our meetings energizing, short, efficient, and fun. We make extensive use of empowered groups to change from the model of long meetings to smaller groups of people who are all interested in the subject being discussed. We also are receiving training in facilitation of meetings so that they are run in the most efficient ways possible.
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Q8:  Are you doing all this yourselves?
Answer:
No, we are in very frequent consultation with experts in cohousing from all over the country by phone, email, and in person. We have attended two National
Conferences and are a member of Mid Atlantic Cohousing, a consortium of 11
cohousing communities in the Washington, D.C. area. We are well known to the
national experts, and some are very interested in partnering with us. Many of us
have visited more than a dozen cohousing communities. A lawyer is checking and
rewriting our agreements as of this date, and we have hired a project manager.
Most cohousing communities also partner with a developer who is experienced in and has built cohousing, and we plan to do the same to reduce our risk and increase access to financing.
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Q9:  Please tell me about common meals?
Answer:
Cohousing communities usually prepare between two and four meals per week in
their common house. The meals are prepared by a team of 2-4 persons for however many eaters sign up for the meal in advance. Eating common meals is always voluntary. In a few communities cooking is also voluntary, but in some cases it is not. However, there is a good deal of variation in the way the cooking (and cleanup) responsibilities are structured. Typically, however, each adult is involved in meal preparation and/or cleanup once every 4 or 5 weeks. There is also variation in how the common meals are paid for, but one only pays for the meals one eats.

We feel that common meals (even if some people's schedules permit them to attend only irregularly) are the “glue” that holds cohousing communities together. A common meal may be the only time in a busy week when we get to have a real
conversation with our neighbors. And if we are lucky enough to have a little extra
time for some after-dinner coffee or tea and conversation, while the kids romp
around in the playroom or outside if the weather is fine, so much the better.

Many communities encourage their cooks to provide a vegetarian option at most
meals, and special food requirements are respected, although not every one of them will necessarily be accommodated at every meal.
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Q10:  What else is the common house for?
Answer:
We envision spontaneous musical events, planned parties, a play area for children, space for discussion groups, a game room, possibly a workshop and a greenhouse, and so forth. Maybe there will even be a hot tub or a community swimming pool.
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Q11:  What kind of houses will be built?
Answer:
Smaller than average homes because not everyone needs a guestroom, for example, and guestrooms are planned for the common house. The exact size of the homes in terms of square feet will be decided soon once the land is purchased, by the Equity Members. We plan to build homes that are: highly energy efficient, almost certainly passive solar, probably ready to add active solar panels for those homeowners who want to, and probably using geothermal heating and cooling. We plan that they will be very, very attractive to help assure people that cohousers care about beauty as well as function. The kitchens will probably be at the front of the houses, looking out on the common walkway. Whether they will be single, detached homes, twins, or townhouses or a mix of all three depends partly on land, zoning, and costs and, we hope, individual household decisions. Early Equity Members will get to make many of these decisions, and the earlier one joins, the more decisions will be made by that group.
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Q12:  What about this horse farm idea?
Answer:
This is simply an idea we are exploring, not one that is decided upon. Briefly, we
could possibly purchase and save from heavy development a larger parcel of land if we were to build a separate cluster of larger homes for people interested in riding horses on, for example, 100 acres of land. The “horse members” would probably have a separate organization and the homes would located well away from Concord Village, but there would be horse trails on the common land. This idea is in the early talking stages and may never happen.
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Q13:  Are homes in Concord Ecovillage going to be expensive?
Answer:
Expensive to one person is inexpensive to another. The simplest answer to this
question is first, that Concord Ecovillage is new construction, and all new construction is somewhat expensive, and second, that Concord Ecovillage will have very extensive common facilities, considering the units’ small size, relative to conventional housing complexes. Also, remember that although you may not get a custom-built individual residence, as a group we are getting a custom-built community for our money. Every site we have looked at so far has contained extensive open space, for example, which is part of the price of each home. Many members are getting an opportunity to work more closely with the architect(s) designing their future home(s) than they ever imagined they would have. Given these factors, it is remarkable that, across the U.S., cohousing units do not cost any more than other market rate housing. We estimate that our prices will be about $200,000 to $300,000 for a unit, depending on the number of bedrooms and the size of the home. The cost will partially be determined by the price of land. Members who want to have more amenities or a higher priced or larger home may choose options that will increase the overall price significantly. Environmentally wise construction will keep heating and cooling costs very low, we expect, based on other communities’ experiences, and that will make a home more affordable than a conventional home. There may be much smaller units, affordability options, and so on that would bring the price down further. In some communities homeowners build a two-level duplex and rent out the top floor to reduce their monthly costs. There may even be apartments or a home or two strictly for rental.
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Q14:  How are people selected to be members of Concord Ecovillage?
Answer:
The simple answer is that people select themselves. We presently require attendance at several regular meetings, and perhaps we will ask some involvement with a committee before a household can apply for membership. We have levels of memberships that require less in the way of a financial contribution but do give potential Equity members the chance to participate in the planning process and to get to know others in the group. An Equity membership requires an equity investment, all of which we intend to be eventually credited toward the final price of your house. These equity investments are, in a sense, a way of making your down payment on your unit in small steps, before closing on your home.

The disadvantage of joining a group early is that your home may take a long time,
not to mention energy and money, to materialize. The advantages are that the
earlier you come into the group, the more opportunity you have to be a part of the design and planning. And you get an earlier place in the order in which units will be selected. Also, there are financial incentives for joining the group early in a discount applied to your final house price.
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Q15:  How is home ownership legally structured in cohousing communities?
Answer:
Most cohousing communities are either structured as condominiums (a legal concept, not a physical design) or planned unit developments. In what is called the "lot development model," members jointly own the common property and facilities and are the sole owners of the lot on which they build their own single family house. Sometimes they own just the land directly under their homes (the footprint) or that plus a small back or front "private" yard. A third variation is a community land trust, which would help finance and preserve a portion of the land. We haven’t decided on our home ownership structure yet.
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Q16:  What is “aging in place”?
Answer:
At least some of the homes will use universal design, which will mean that as we
age, we will be able to stay in our homes as long as possible. There also may be an apartment in the common house for a caregiver who could provide care to several older residents. Also, people in completed cohousing communities tell us that older residents enjoy enthusiastic support and care from the younger residents. Many of us hope to never have to move to a retirement community or nursing home.
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Q17:  What if I want to or have to move out of the community and sell my unit?
Answer:
Any household leaving the community can legally sell their property to anyone they choose, but Concord Ecovillage may decide to maintain a "right of first refusal," which means that the seller must offer his or her unit for purchase by the community or to an individual or individuals within the community to match a price offered by someone on the open market. In other communities, residents sign a voluntary agreement that they will not lease or sell their unit to a person or persons who do not wish to participate fully in the community. Some communities maintain a waiting list of persons interested in being informed if a unit becomes available, and it is to the benefit of the seller and to the rest of the community if everyone lends a hand in finding new owners. When it comes to resales, experience has shown that homes in cohousing have held their value or have appreciated faster than the market as a whole!
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Q18:  Will my initial investment be at risk?
Answer:
Early money is more at risk than money put in later. That is why there are large
inducements to the earliest investors, such as special offers, high rates of interest, and site selection priority. Early investors who are Equity Members also get to make most of the decisions about the community.
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Q19:  I can't afford to (or don't want to) buy into Concord Ecovillage. Are rental units available? What about affordable housing?
Answer:
In some cohousing communities a few individual households own homes with
attached apartments that are available for rent or a second unit in the community
that may be rented. A few communities have (or are planning) one or more units
which might be shared by two or more individuals or households. In this situation the unit might be held by more than one person as joint tenants or tenants-in-common. Alternatively, one person or household could own the unit and others sharing the home would be renters. At the present time, there is no community that we know of in which the homeowner's association owns a unit and rents it out, though some communities have an apartment or two as part of the common house. In Concord Ecovillage we plan that some units will be smaller than others and therefore more affordable (see cost of homes.)

There may be an “affordability” option that would greatly reduce the cost of living in Concord Ecovillage. There are many local government resources for affordable housing. This is still being planned. One of our members is a developer of affordable cohousing, which gives us expertise not found in many other groups.

Renting residents usually have all the same rights and responsibilities as owners
except in matters relating to expenditure of large amounts of money. Typically,
renters are welcome to attend meetings and participate fully in discussions of
community matters, but usually they cannot block consensus.
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Q20:  Will Concord Ecovillage be near a small town?
Answer:
This is one of our basic values that we hope to achieve. We want to be connected to the community at large. We want to discourage the use of cars. We don’t want to be isolated out in the country or right in the midst of a large urban area. We value the choice of walking or biking to nearby facilities. However, we recognize the difficulty of finding such land, and we are also looking for land further away from a town.
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Q21:  Where are you presently looking for land?
Answer:
We are especially looking near Kennett Square, PA and other towns. We have not yet looked extensively in MD. In general, technically we are searching in a 20 mile
radius of the intersection of DE, MD, and PA. There is a highly active land search
group looking hard for land with the help of professionals.
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Q22:  How large will Concord Ecovillage be, and what kinds of households live in cohousing?
Answer:
Cohousing communities in North America range in size from 9 to 44 households. We have been told by many experienced cohousers that cohousing works best with 25 to 40 households. Concord Ecovillage plans to have about 35 to 40 households. We chose this number particularly to have enough children for the children to play with. Cohousing attracts a wide range of household types, for example: single people of all ages, couples and single parents of infants, toddlers and school-aged children, couples whose children are grown, and young couples without children.
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Q23:  We'd like to live in a cohousing group just with people that are all… teachers/musicians/older folks/artists/single moms....
Answer:
We are actively seeking diversity of all kinds in Concord Ecovillage; we want to live in a community with others who are not just like ourselves.
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Q24:  What is an “Equity Member?” How much does such membership cost?
Answer:
Cohousing communities in North America range in size from 9 to 44 households. We have been told by many experienced cohousers that cohousing works best with 25 to 40 households. Concord Ecovillage plans to have about 35 to 40 households. We chose this number particularly to have enough children for the children to play with. Cohousing attracts a wide range of household types, for example: single people of all ages, couples and single parents of infants, toddlers and school-aged children, couples whose children are grown, and young couples without children.
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Q25:  What should I do next if I am interested in exploring membership in Concord Ecovillage?
Answer:
Make sure we have contact information for you and come to meetings and get to
know our group, by email or preferably in person. Sometimes we have small group information sessions in local coffee shops. Explore cohousing groups on the Web and, as soon as you can, visit some completed communities. Join our Yahoo group, and visit our web site at www.concordvillage.org. We can also suggest several books on cohousing that would be very informative, and we have a video that you can borrow which interviews people living in cohousing around the country.
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Concord Ecovillage Cohousing Group
(http://www.concordvillage.org) - © 2008