As soon as two weeks, the construction of eight cohousing units will begin on a 1.77-acre site on 2600 Mill Ave.
What is Cohousing?
Cohousing is a type of collaborative housing in which residents actively participate in the design and operation of their own neighborhoods, according to www.cohousing.org. The residents are consciously committed to living as a community and the physical design encourages both social contact and individual space.
Millworks Cohousing LLC is the group behind this project. This group of eight households has come together over the course of two years to develop cohousing on the $660,000 property.
Group member Perry Fizzano, a computer science professor at Western Washington University, said the property was bought in June 2008. He said, since then, Millworks has been planning this project and he has lived in the existing house on the property.
“I think it's a great project to show progressive development while still maintaining the character of the neighborhood,” Fizzano said.
Fizzano said the building, land-use and house permits are approved, and everything is pretty much ready to go. The group is just waiting on some banking technicalities, he said.
Project Manager Rose Lathrop of Aiki Homes, a construction company, said the construction project will take about 13 months to finish. She said the total cost of the project is an ambiguous figure considering costs that include site development, plotting and permits, land and individual construction of each house.
The Project
Fizzano said the project layout consists of eight housing units custom designed by each household, the existing 1 ½ story house as a common house, a play area for kids and a community garden. Lathrop said the common house will be used for gatherings and guest space, while the garage of the common house will be used as a workshop and for storage.
The sizes of the houses being built range from 800 to 1,800 square feet, said Lathrop. She said Millworks decided as a group to build eight houses with this kind of size flexibility rather than the full potential of 10 houses. There are other constraints such as stormwater management that create a size limit of 5,000 square feet to the houses, according to Aiki Homes Feasibility Study on the property.
Among the eight households, Fizzano said there are about 16 people who will be part of the cohousing community, young and old. He said they include single individuals, married couples with children and retired people.
Lathrop said with this cohousing project, each household is saving about $5,000 since they are able to share a parking lot, water connection and sewer connection.
“Millworks has put a lot of time, money, gumption and vision in this project to make it work,” Lathrop said.
Each household was able to decide on specific features such as flooring material and renewable energy options, Lathrop said.
Fizzano said all of the houses are “green built” in terms of energy efficiency and materials. He said some households are using green energy through wind turbine subscriptions.
Getting Things Going
Lathrop said Aiki Homes has been working with Millworks since 2008 and said projects like this are usually a process of planning and permit approvals.
She said the process may have been drawn out because each household was given a fresh pallet to completely design a house specific to their needs and desires. Also, she said the cohousing group only had five of its eight members last summer.
“The longer they have to make decisions how they want their house to look, the more changes they will make,” Lathrop said.
Seventy-three-year old Leah Redifer lives in Happy Valley and said she heard about the project awhile ago. She said she thought it had been put on hold or cancelled due to the economy.
Cohousing is the Way to Go
Options like these show how cohousing is flexible and gives people variety, Lathrop said. She said general house developers lay down the line on house structure and features, and that’s the way it is.
You can’t get as creative with a standard developer, Lathrop said.
Happy Valley resident Marlene Jackson, 69, said the cohousing project is positive and good for the neighborhood. She said it will be a nice little “hodge-podge” community, with a mix of different people together in one area.
Jackson said the she likes that the smaller houses will be affordable for the families and she thinks the community garden will be very beneficial.
Lathrop said she likes that this group is multi-generational – kids and parents, grandparents and young adults. People are so classified in communities when it comes to age, but this group is different, she said.
Fizzano said he is looking forward to living in a new house surrounded by people who are somewhat like-minded. He said this is one of things that motivated him to undertake the project from the beginning.
Visit Bellingham's cohousing websites:What is Cohousing?
Cohousing is a type of collaborative housing in which residents actively participate in the design and operation of their own neighborhoods, according to www.cohousing.org. The residents are consciously committed to living as a community and the physical design encourages both social contact and individual space.
Millworks Cohousing LLC is the group behind this project. This group of eight households has come together over the course of two years to develop cohousing on the $660,000 property.
Group member Perry Fizzano, a computer science professor at Western Washington University, said the property was bought in June 2008. He said, since then, Millworks has been planning this project and he has lived in the existing house on the property.
“I think it's a great project to show progressive development while still maintaining the character of the neighborhood,” Fizzano said.
Fizzano said the building, land-use and house permits are approved, and everything is pretty much ready to go. The group is just waiting on some banking technicalities, he said.
Project Manager Rose Lathrop of Aiki Homes, a construction company, said the construction project will take about 13 months to finish. She said the total cost of the project is an ambiguous figure considering costs that include site development, plotting and permits, land and individual construction of each house.
The Project
Fizzano said the project layout consists of eight housing units custom designed by each household, the existing 1 ½ story house as a common house, a play area for kids and a community garden. Lathrop said the common house will be used for gatherings and guest space, while the garage of the common house will be used as a workshop and for storage.
The sizes of the houses being built range from 800 to 1,800 square feet, said Lathrop. She said Millworks decided as a group to build eight houses with this kind of size flexibility rather than the full potential of 10 houses. There are other constraints such as stormwater management that create a size limit of 5,000 square feet to the houses, according to Aiki Homes Feasibility Study on the property.
Among the eight households, Fizzano said there are about 16 people who will be part of the cohousing community, young and old. He said they include single individuals, married couples with children and retired people.
Lathrop said with this cohousing project, each household is saving about $5,000 since they are able to share a parking lot, water connection and sewer connection.
“Millworks has put a lot of time, money, gumption and vision in this project to make it work,” Lathrop said.
Each household was able to decide on specific features such as flooring material and renewable energy options, Lathrop said.
Fizzano said all of the houses are “green built” in terms of energy efficiency and materials. He said some households are using green energy through wind turbine subscriptions.
Getting Things Going
Lathrop said Aiki Homes has been working with Millworks since 2008 and said projects like this are usually a process of planning and permit approvals.
She said the process may have been drawn out because each household was given a fresh pallet to completely design a house specific to their needs and desires. Also, she said the cohousing group only had five of its eight members last summer.
“The longer they have to make decisions how they want their house to look, the more changes they will make,” Lathrop said.
Seventy-three-year old Leah Redifer lives in Happy Valley and said she heard about the project awhile ago. She said she thought it had been put on hold or cancelled due to the economy.
Cohousing is the Way to Go
Options like these show how cohousing is flexible and gives people variety, Lathrop said. She said general house developers lay down the line on house structure and features, and that’s the way it is.
You can’t get as creative with a standard developer, Lathrop said.
Happy Valley resident Marlene Jackson, 69, said the cohousing project is positive and good for the neighborhood. She said it will be a nice little “hodge-podge” community, with a mix of different people together in one area.
Jackson said the she likes that the smaller houses will be affordable for the families and she thinks the community garden will be very beneficial.
Lathrop said she likes that this group is multi-generational – kids and parents, grandparents and young adults. People are so classified in communities when it comes to age, but this group is different, she said.
Fizzano said he is looking forward to living in a new house surrounded by people who are somewhat like-minded. He said this is one of things that motivated him to undertake the project from the beginning.
Millworks Cohousing: http://www.millworkscohousing.org/
Donovan Avenue Cohousing: http://www.bellcoho.com/index.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment