“Can we build a cohousing neighborhood where people who support local agriculture come together with farmers to create a resilient and caring community life?”

Dave Boehnlein, permaculturist and one of Rooted Northwest’s founders

We believe the answer is Yes!, and we are doing just that in rural Snohomish County an hour north of Seattle. In December 2024, our Preliminary Plat was approved, setting the stage to bring our vision of a village with farmland to reality. We are recruiting homebuyers to join us in a community built on shared values, meaningful work, everyday interaction, connection to nature, and participatory decision-making. You don’t have to be a farmer to live at Rooted Northwest! Residents can support regenerative farming and healthful local food just by buying a home here. Of course, if you want to farm, whether as a livelihood or a side gig, we have plenty of land for you to pursue your growing passions, too.

Rooted Northwest will be an agrivillage in Washington state – a walkable rural cohousing neighborhood on beautiful land with forests and nature that also supports a mosaic of small on-site regenerative farms sharing common infrastructure and equipment. Founded by people who believe there is another way to live – one that nurtures land, people, and community – Rooted Northwest aims to model a new kind of rural development in which homebuyers make the mission of saving farmland and supporting farmers a reality. As cohousing consultant Katie McCamant says, “It doesn’t have to be housing versus farms – if we are just willing to cluster our housing more closely, we can actually use housing to save farmland.”

The site of Rooted Northwest’s future cohousing villages, surrounded by forests and farmland.

How are we doing this? Existing zoning rules would have allowed 70 homes on 5-acre lots, which would have turned this farmland into just another subdivision of McMansions. The county loved our idea of instead clustering those 70 homes in two cohousing villages, each with only a 5-acre footprint, so that more than 90% of the acreage remains farmland, open space, and forest. Because of our advocacy, the county passed a Rural Village Housing Demonstration Program Ordinance in 2023, and approved our preliminary plat application in December 2024.

Over a dozen households with people of all ages and vocations are committed to buying homes, and we are looking for more! We’ve owned our 240-acre piece of land since 2020, and over that time have worked and played (and cooked up lots of tasty potlucks) as we steward the land and build relationships, everyone contributing when and how they’re able. Just a few examples: Erik and Don set a walking trail through the woods at the foot of the property, with a footbridge over the stream. Diane planted a parcel with basketry willows, and Monique is tending tender tea plants in the forest understory. Dan led a crew of us to convert the old barn into a temporary common house, so we can come in out of the weather during our monthly work parties. Carla cares for a flock of ducks with sweet personalities and voracious appetites for slugs. Eric cooks paella on an outdoor gas ring every year at our summer solstice party. Steffi, Yuko, and Audrey have curated our online presence in social media. Groups meet up to play board games. And everybody, but everybody, has cleared away old tires, trash, and invasive blackberries!

We’ve also been hard at work over Zoom, using our sociocratic governance structure to guide this project through the design process, including water, septic, fire, and development permitting, along with outreach to the surrounding community and potential homebuyers. Some of the future residents already farm on Rooted Northwest land – Don and Steffi of River Raven Herbs, Milya of Kestrel Meadows Blooms, Matthew, Diane, and Mindy of the Blueberry Co-op, to name a few. Others of us have no plans to farm, but are enthusiastic supporters (and occasional volunteer labor) for the farmers. We look forward to shared meals in a real (not temporary) common house and to living in homes designed for energy efficiency, healthy indoor air quality, and sustainability. There are possibilities for makerspaces for ceramic artists (we have wheels and kilns!), woodworkers, metalworkers, fiber artists, or whoever shows up with energy and good ideas, as well as for a commercial kitchen and market stand where neighbors can buy produce and processed foods (like jams or kimchi or baked goods).

Everyone who is part of Rooted Northwest comes with their own motivations. Among these are many that are common among cohousers – the desire to live more lightly on the land, to raise kids in intergenerational community, to counter the isolation and loneliness of “unintentional living.” Given Rooted Northwest’s particular configuration, many of us come with additional motivations, such as to produce and consume healthful foods, to preserve farmland, provide educational programs about regenerative techniques, or to make farming more accessible to those without inherited wealth. All of us look forward to building a legacy of a new way to live. 

Renderings of the first 40 homes and common areas that will make up Rooted Northwest – by Caddis Collaborative.

Site plans encourage interaction with your neighbors on a daily basis, while providing private space and home ownership – by Caddis Collaborative.

We are growing our community of home buyers, finding a development partner, and gearing up to start construction. We plan to break ground this summer and move in as soon as late 2026. The first phase of development will build 40 homes ranging in size from 2-bedroom townhomes to 4-bedroom detached homes, with some accessible units. Home prices start at $875k. Co-buying is an option for those who want to share costs and space. Eventually we hope there will be a second village with an additional 30 homes. 

To find out more about buying a home in this community, anyone can attend one of the virtual Information Sessions by signing up at www.rootednw.org, or contact us for a tour at RootedQuestions@gmail.com