New cohousing group sought for downtown Oakland, CA site
Submitted by East Bay Cohousing on Mon, 07/06/2009 - 10:39
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By Joani Blank, Raines Cohen, and Betsy Morris
You could be a future resident of a new-build cohousing community in downtown Oakland close to the subway (a very short ride to downtown San Francisco), City Hall, The new "Uptown" neighborhood, and the First Unitarian Church of Oakland (FUCO).
It takes time, energy and money contributed by the future-resident group to get a cohousing community built. Finding suitable sites at a reasonable cost in the Bay Area has been very difficult for many years... so when a site like the one described here becomes available, we're inclined to jump at the chance to see if a future resident group (as well as some outside investors) can be assembled.
It has come to our attention that a downtown Oakland development site already entitled with planning approvals for 40 market-rate residential condominiums is for sale at a very reasonable cost. The site is on 14th Street, between Martin Luther King and Jefferson Streets, just five blocks away from Swan's Market Cohousing. The approved plans are available for your viewing at:
http://www.632fourtee... .
When looking at the floor plans, right away we started to think about how, with some relatively minor design changes, the square footage currently planned for 2 or 3 units on either Level 1 or Level 7 could be converted to a common house including 715 square feet of outdoor space on either level.
We sent Cohousing Partners (the development arm of the former Cohousing Company) this info, and Katie McCamant responded "......I'd love to work with a group that is ready to take advantage of this opportunity... but need someone else to initiate the community." That means: a community ready to jump in and put up some money to tie up the site.
So we decided to call a meeting to bring together those who would like to explore starting a future-resident group for this site, 5:30-7:30 PM this Friday evening at Swan's Market Cohousing in Old Oakland. Persons not wishing to live in cohousing, but who might consider investing such a project are also most welcome.
Due to the economic downturn there are now more East Bay sites available at reasonable cost than in the past couple of decades. And there is good reason to believe that another suitable site would be significantly easier to find now than it would have been as recently as a couple of years ago, if for some reason the site we'll be looking at on the 10th doesn't work out.
Joani Blank
Cohousing Enthusiast, Resident of Swan's Market Cohousing.
Raines Cohen and Betsy Morris
Cohousing Coaches, East Bay Cohousing
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Why live or invest in cohousing in downtown Oakland? My view
I just wanted to add a few personal words to express my excitement about the cohousing potential of a new downtown Oakland site.
I was part of Swan's Market Cohousing during the development process and initial years in residence, before moving to Berkeley cohousing, and I do miss the larger-community "buzz" and convenience of access to culture and shopping restaurants and government and job opportunities, plus being right on an official bike route, near Amtrak with service to Silicon Valley and Sacramento, not to mention the wonderful ferries and shoreline parks. It was nice having a shorter commute to downtown San Francisco than most San Franciscans, and being able to walk over to Oakland's Chinatown.
No, Betsy and I are not planning on moving from Berkeley Cohousing, but as we've been doing outreach on the Kaiser-Piedmont
"Instant Cohousing" move-in-ready apartment building site, we've found a number of folks interested in a larger community and some not ready for an immediate purchase, needing to build savings, repair credit, or sell an existing home first. When I was selling my unit at Swan's a couple of years ago, I found many people who needed something larger than a studio loft, and definite demand exceeding supply, with low turnover there (mine was the first unit offered for sale in several years).
If you're interested but unable to attend this Friday evening, July 10, just click through to the East Bay Cohousing event link and RSVP "No" (you'll have to confirm your email address to help prevent spam) and you'll get the chance to pose some questions and get on the list for follow-up, as well as notice of the many tours, trainings, events, and community opportunities in the area:
http://www.ebcoho.org/calendar/10796927/
Raines Cohen, Cohousing Coach, Planning for Sustainable Communities (At Berkeley Cohousing)
http://www.CohousingCoaches.com/
East Bay Cohousing community organizer
http://www.ebcoho.org/