Community News

Michael Allan Black, one of America's foremost authorities on co-housing, died of a heart attack April 9 in Santa Rosa, CA, He was 70. Two of the best known projects he designed were Two Acre Wood in Sebastopol and Yulupa Co-Housing in Santa Rosa, where he had been living since 2005 with his wife, Alexandra Hart. "His strong belief was that community is one of the things that bonds people," she said.

Marty Maskall, the founder of Orangevale Cohousing, a forming group near Sacramento, says, "I feel honored that I got to know Michael Black. He was a gentle and calming presence." She met him while attending a workshop at Yulupa Cohousing in 2007, "At the time, I was feeling shell shocked because our project had just been rejected by the local Planning Council. Michael was very encouraging and he had several specific suggestions to help us. He made copies for me of letters of endorsement from mayors and other officials, and he taught me that getting letters like that could really help our project win approval." she remembers. "He was generous with his time, and a pleasure to talk with. I will miss Michael's gentle and encouraging spirit! He did much to advance the Cohousing movement."

Michael was looking forward to participating in the Coho/US conference in June and was scheduled to make a presentation on "The Role of Eclectic Spirituality in Deepening Our Connections." He intended to discuss an "eclectic spiritual perspective that enables us to embrace ourselves and our community life as sacred, in the same way that we can hold life itself as sacred — something to cherish, protect and serve. Viewing our community life through this 'spiritual lens' builds awareness, compassion, trust and openness."

He will be deeply missed.

The heavy rain, hail and snow held off until the after the Wolf Creek Village Cohousing Ground Breaking held on Saturday, March 15th at 12 noon. Seventy-five future residents of Wolf Creek Commons, Wolf Creek Lodge, Mayor Mark Johnson, City Council members Chauncey Poston and Janet Arbuckle, City staff, CoHousing Partners, McCamant & Durrett Architects were all present to celebrate this environmentally conscious new neighborhood. Kathryn McCamant, President of CoHousing Partners, the developer of the project welcomed guests. McCamant, also an architect and author spoke about how special this cohousing project is for her, “I know that in creating a neighborhood where people will walk to shopping, bike to the farmers market and into downtown, that we are moving toward a more sustainable lifestyle where we will use less of the earth’s precious resources.”

The National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) has announced that McCamant & Durrett Architects are the recipients of the Silver 2008 Energy Value Housing Award for their Nevada City Cohousing project. The NAHB searches for the best in the country for the top honors in energy-efficiency, design and innovation.

On receiving the award, firm principal Chuck Durrett responded by stating, “We are honored to have been selected from a field of 500 other projects." Katie McCamant, M&D's other principal, said, "What is key for me is to create walkable communities where people use less of the earth’s resources while living a better quality of life."

Delaware Street Commons (DSC), the first cohousing community in Kansas, has received the River City Architectural Enhancement Award from the Lawrence Board of Realtors. The community will receive the honor at a luncheon on September 18, 2007. Delaware Street Commons, a resident-developed project, recently finished construction on 21 new homes and a 2,260 sq. ft. common house.

Katie McCamant was a featured speaker at the Dwell on Design Conference this fall in San Francisco. She has been recognized as one of Dwell’s National Design Leaders. Watch this interesting and informative video of Katie discussing cohousing in the US.

Silver Sage Village in Boulder, CO, the the first senior cohousing community in the U.S. built next to an inter-generational community opened October 18th. For more information, visit its website.

Kathryn McCamant & Charles Durrett of CoHousing Partners and McCamant & Durrett Architects, received several honors.

The Sierra Business Council honored them October 19, 2007, as part of its the Vision 2020 Award, for their commitment to promoting a unique solution to one of the most vexing problems in the Sierra Nevada - the growing need for affordable, high quality housing. That same day, Katie McCamant was interviewed by Green Living Ideas. The podcast is available here. The firm is also among the finalists competing for the "2008 EnergyValue Housing Award," awarded by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). That competition is for their work on Nevada City Cohousing.

In the great and historic town of San Juan Bautista, CA (pop. 1500), any new building project of more than three houses has to win a simple majority vote by the general population in a special election before it can proceed. That is, the applicant has to spend $50,000 and about six months of work just to get an election date, a ballot printed and all of the rest.

Colorado's newest cohousing site will feature 35 "green-built" and sustainably designed homes with a 6,000 sq. ft. common house and views of the Continental Divide and elk-filled meadows. Developer Jim Tawney, a long-time Estes Park resident and founding member of Mary's Meadow Cohousing, has purchased and secured all approvals on a 5-acre parcel that lies just two miles from the Estes Park town center and a mile from the south entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. The 1 - 4 bedroom homes include free-standing, duplex and quadraplex units with costs ranging from market rate to the more affordable. This will be a multigenerational community with families, singles and those aged 55-plus. Interest in the neighborhood is high, with a 2008 projected move-in. The mountain town of Estes Park (pop. 10,000) is easily accessible from all Colorado Front Range cities and is about 1 to 1-1/2 hours drive from Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins and Greeley. Visit the website for more information or call 303-413-8066.

How do some cohousers spend their vacations? Apparently, getting away from it all simply offers another opportunity for community. That's the case with 10 members of Pleasant Hill Cohousing who, together with 10 of their friends and family members, toured China together this summer. To visit the blog about their trip, click here.