As Nellie mentioned in the Co-Housing Research thread, there was a breakout discussion group focused on affordable sustainable housing. We decided to apply serious effort to the idea of creating a small-scale or scaleable cohousing community... here are the notes from that meeting on what we've discussed. Please let me know if I should add anything to these notes that I may have forgotten... :).

Cohousing Project Meeting Notes

People present at the discussion: Robin, Lyle, John and Nellie.

Community Values Discussed so far:
- Permaculture/Sustainability

INITIAL Amenities we would consider:
- Already built housing (4 plex or more)
- At least 500 sq. ft. of garden space per resident
- Guaranteed solar access for gardening/energy
- Laundry room or facilities
- Individual space requirements (so far we will need a 2 bed., two 1 beds., and a studio or room.)
- Good solid walls to dull sound
- Not too much retrofitting, if possible
- Near a grocery store or co-op
- Near a bike path
- Not too close to bars or noisy area
- Future possibility for low energy heating system

Other Considerations:

Future Project Meetings
We agreed that we would meet every month at the Wednesday General Meeting, and convene for another Cohousing Project breakout group after the usual intros and announcements. The next meeting will be June 14th.

No "Deal Breaking"
We reached a consensus that we would not change anything we've previously reached a consensus on in order to appease potential new project members.

Security Measures
We agreed that we would allow our members to own weapons if they choose, so long as the weapons have proper safety features, the owners are trained in using those weapons, the owners are of reliable character, and the weapons are locked up in a community armory and not kept in personal residences.

Locations
We pretty much agreed that inner SE would be ideal; I mentioned that the Permaculture Guild has property in NE Portland in a very affordable part of town. We also discussed locating the property on a MAX line as an alternative to being nearer to the City Center. I suggested somewhere near NE Glisan and 60th as a good compromise on location.

Title Interest/Ownership Rights
We agreed that having clearly outlined ownership interests and rules/responsibilities was important to us. We discussed an ownership structure that I developed awhile back; I'll be posting more details on that structure soon.

Non-Smoking
We agreed that our community would be non-smoking, in the interests of protecting our investment and attracting the sort of community members we would want to share space with.

Goals for the Month:

Everyone: Think about desired amenities, Common values, present and future considerations.

Robin: Post notes, establish a virtual working space, outline proposed ownership and management structure on paper.

John: Talk to other cohousing communities and get info and advice on how to put it together.

Nellie: Talk to real estate expert friend, research properties and affordability.