CONDOS SHOWCASE COHOUSING

DAVID COLLINS

July 13, 2008

Concept encourages residents to engage in community Condos: Community events encouraged

A condominium project near Cerrillos Road and Avenida de Las Americas slated for a formal groundbreaking event Thursday will follow a community design model used by only three other senior citizens condominium projects in the nation, a spokesman said.

Styled as a cohousing community, plans for ElderGrace feature 28 condos in duplex units and a 2,400-square-foot community building with a commercial-grade kitchen. The condos, ranging in size from 800 to 1,200 square feet, will be marketed toward buyers over the age of 55 who might prefer to downsize from a larger home, said Bruce Blossman.

A likely buyer and a member of the architectural committee planning the project in cooperation with the Santa Fe Community Housing Trust, Blossman said buyers have already lined up for all but about seven or eight of the units. "We envision ourselves as aging together in a senior community intent on cultivating a balance of independence and interdependence," Blossman said. The concept of cohousing arrived in the United States in 1988 with the publication of Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves (Kathryn McCamant, Charles R. Durrett, Ellen Hertzman, 10-Speed Press). Craig Ragland, a Seattle cohousing resident and president of the Cohousing Association of the United States, said the communities are organized around core principals that call for nonhierarchical decision making, self-management, shared meals, neighborhood-scale operations and participatory design. "For some of us, it's like (what) we had in the (19)50s and '60s in the suburbs; we ran around in each other's house and never talked about the lack of safety," Ragland said.

Since the concept arrived on U.S. shores from Denmark, 113 cohousing communities have been established that remain in operation as cohousing communities, with about 5,600 residents nationwide, Ragland said. Only three of those communities are reserved for senior citizens, he said. In Santa Fe, there are two existing cohousing communities: Tres Placitas del Rio, along the Santa Fe River, was slated to be completed this year with 10 homes; Commons on the Alameda was started in 1991 and completed in 1997 with 28 houses, which at latest count were home to 64 residents.

Most cohousing communities are small, ranging in size from less than a dozen homes to a few dozen, reflecting the movement's preference for neighborhood-scale design. Prospective ElderGrace residents have been holding monthly meetings for more than a year where they plan details of their future community, Blossman said. Each prospective buyer is asked to deposit $2,000 with the Santa Fe Community Housing Trust as evidence of their commitment, but the refundable payments are not earnest money toward a purchase because the yet-to-be-built units are not yet available for sale, according to Jim Hannan, finance director for Santa Fe Community Housing Trust. The rules that govern cohousing communities are a unique hybrid of federal fair housing regulations, contract law governing homeowner associations, local zoning ordinances and rules developed by residents who plan and live in the communities. Most cohousing communities strongly encourage residents to participate in community events such as cooking a monthly meal for the community. Ragland said rules are usually enforced through persuasion rather than litigation.

While mixed-age cohousing communities have established a pool of experience, documented in Web sites and shared among communities, senior citizens cohousing communities are still finding their way, Ragland said. "Elder cohousing and senior cohousing is so new in this country we don't know what we are doing yet," Ragland said.

Prospective residents of cohousing communities tend to self-select whether they want to live in a community that encourages them to participate in neighborhood events, Hannan said, but owners can sell their units to anyone they choose. On its Web site, ElderGrace promotes a statement of values it says members hold, but most such communities must ultimately balance the desire to live among like-minded neighbors with their desire for diversity, which ElderGrace supports in its statements, and with federal laws that prohibit discrimination in housing opportunities based on a person's religion or creed, Ragland said.

Contact David Collins at 986-3064 or dcollins@sfnewmexican.com.

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