An exceptional opportunity is available to create a cohousing community on a 12 acre property in Penngrove in Sonoma County! However, we don't have enough money to purchase and develop the property. We are looking for both future residents with money to invest and outside investors who want to support this dream. The owner has already received for subdivision into 4 lots. We've done a preliminary feasibility study and it looks extremely promising. Sonoma County allows each lot to have one home, two units up to 1200 square feet (one attached and one detached), and one junior accessory dwelling unit up to 500 square feet. Each lot will cost about 600K and will be held as tenants in common for 3-4 homes.
Home prices will probably run from the upper $300,000's for the smallest homes to over 1 million for the largest homes. The exact home cost will depend on the final number of homes, the final home design, the final square footage, the final building materials, and the size of the common house that we, the future residents, consense on. We are also exploring alternative building materials to bring the cost down. By getting involved now, you can get help determine all this.
The number of bedrooms allowed in each house will be determined by a $3000 septic study. We know we can have at least three 1-bedroom homes on each of the four lots. The study will let us know whether we can have four homes per lot and/or some homes can have two bedrooms. One lot definitely can. We can also get extra bedrooms by having offices and dens without closets.
After an offer is accepted, the owner is now offering us 60 days for our next stage feasibility studies. The first step would be $3000 for the septic system study and $3500 to apply for a state small water system for the existing well. Other next steps include architectural design drawings (30-50K), legal fees, and a formal review meeting with the planning department. Whatever we spent would be non-refundable if we decided to back out during the 60 days. We will also need to start marketing to get the remaining residents.
Unless we have outside investors, each resident would need to gradually contribute 30-40% of their home cost prior to the start of construction in fall of 2026.
The estimated move-in date would be 2-1/2 years from now in fall of 2027.
If you or anyone you know might be able to invest in making this dream a reality, please reach out to me for more details, the feasibility study link, an invite to our Discord discussion group, meeting details, or a site visit.
It is rare for property like this to come on the market, so the time to act is NOW!
