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<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=3 height=170 BGCOLOR="#A6CAF0" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="35f77aa1eezzsc.jpg"> <div> <B>WindSong Cohousing Community</B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="WindSong Cohousing Community"><U><B>WindSong Home</B></U></A><B>  /  </B><A HREF="http://www.cohousing.ca" TARGET="_blank" TITLE="http://www.cohousing.ca"><U><B>Canadian Cohousing Network</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="social_life.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Social Life"><U><B>Social Life</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="neighbourhood.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Neighbourhood"><U><B>Neighbourhood</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="our_homes.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Our Homes"><U><B>Our Homes</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="business.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Homebased Business"><U><B>Home-based Business</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="management.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Community Management"><U><B>Community Management</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="decisions.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Meetings Decisions"><U><B>Meetings & Decisions</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="construction.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Construction"><U><B>Construction</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="media.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Media"><U><B>Media</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="homes_sales.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Homes For Sale"><U><B>Homes For Sale</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="photos.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Photos"><U><B>Photos</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="tours.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tours"><U><B>Tours</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="location.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Location"><U><B>Location</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id113.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Calendar"><U><B>Calendar</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="links.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="contacts.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contacts"><U><B>Contacts</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=80 BGCOLOR="#A6CAF0" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=292 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#A6CAF0" TEXT="#080000"> <div> -----------------------------------------------------------------------</div> <div> <B>The Province</B>   |   <A HREF="id106.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="WindSong Marks Its 10th Anniversary"><U>WindSong Marks Its 10th Anniversary</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="CBC Radio Ideas"><U>CBC Radio - Ideas</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id49.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Canadian Geographic"><U>Canadian Geographic</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="National Post"><U>National Post</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Common Ground"><U>Common Ground</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="SFU Peak"><U>SFU Peak</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Vancouver Courier"><U>Vancouver Courier</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id52.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Swarthmore College"><U>Swarthmore College</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id53.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Georgia Straight"><U>Georgia Straight</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id54.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Real Estate Weekly"><U>Real Estate Weekly</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id55.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Advance News"><U>Advance News</U></A></div> <div> <B>The Province</B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div>  <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript"> var sc_project=1576551; var sc_invisible=1; var sc_partition=14; var sc_security="f451f53e"; </script> <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="http://www.statcounter.com/counter/frames.js"></script><noscript><a href="http://www.statcounter.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://c15.statcounter.com/counter.php?sc_project=1576551&java=0&security=f451f53e&invisible=1" alt="best tracker" border="0"></a> </noscript>  <script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript"> _uacct = "UA-1871484-1"; urchinTracker(); </script></div> <div> The New Neighbours</div> <div> Cohousing developments are thriving in B.C. and their residents, called "cohos," are challenging notions of what family and sustainability mean</div> <div> Elaine O'Connor, The Province</div> <div> Published: Sunday, July 27, 2008</div> <bR> <div> When Susana Michaelis was looking to buy a house she knew what she didn't want: a home in a subdivision that was car-dependent and cut off from neighbours. So in 1996, the Nanaimo boutique owner bought a condo and was looking forward to getting to know her neighbours. Twelve years later, residents still stop her in the halls and ask when she moved in.</div> <div> "I thought I was going to have community and safety. I thought I was going to know my neighbours, but I ended up knowing no one. People just went in and out of cars and in and out of suites. There were no pets allowed, no children. We couldn't even feed the birds," says the 55-year-old, recalling how the strata made her remove a hummingbird feeder.</div> <div> "It was a nice place to live if you wanted a lot of privacy, but not if you want community. We didn't even recognize each other."</div> <bR> <div> For Michaelis, her husband, Chad Henderson, and their neighbours preparing to move in to the new Pacific Gardens cohousing complex in December, that's about to change -- radically.</div> <div> Tired of the isolation of modern life, families and retirees -- especially here in B.C. -- have been fuelling a communal-living trend called "cohousing."</div> <div> Cohousing is far from a commune, but it's more than just splitting a duplex with friends. It's a planned-living movement that allows residents to create entirely new neighbourhoods from the ground up. They finance, build, design, construct and then run them. Residents have private homes, but share common areas: kitchens, dining rooms, workshops, lounges and yards. Adherents call themselves "cohos" and see cohousing as a way of recapturing neighbourliness, increasing safety, creating a village to raise children, and helping restore the ecological balance and cohesion missing in society.</div> <div> Michaelis says it's taken 15 years to go from planning to moving in, but the struggle's been worth it.</div> <div> "People were very brave. It took a lot of courage. We had to take out loans, put mortgages on properties, take out life savings. We've done it all on our own and learned so much. There's part of each of us in this development."</div> <bR> <div> The first cohousing community was envisioned in 1964 in Denmark. Architect Jan Gudmand-Hoyer and a group of families designed a complex and bought land, but were shut down by neighbours. Later on, a new group built developments (termed "bofoellesskaber" or "living communities") near Copenhagen in 1973.</div> <div> By 1982, there were 22 cohousing communities in Denmark. Today, 10 per cent of all housing built in the country is cohousing. Architects brought the concept to North America in 1988. The first new community was built in Davis, Calif., in 1991. The first cohousing in B.C. was completed in 1996.</div> <div> Today, there are more than 113 in the U.S. and another 100 planned. Canada has units in B.C., Ontario and Alberta. Others are in planning stages in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Quebec.</div> <div> B.C. is home to a half-dozen developments -- from Cranberry Commons in Burnaby to Quayside Village in North Vancouver, and WindSong in Langley -- the most of any province in the country.</div> <bR> <div> Most co-housing residents share some meals, living spaces, cleaning, child care, maintenance and events. But each has its own character: many focus on environmentally friendly construction, energy conservation or organic farming.</div> <div> Pacific Gardens is a certified green building with energy-efficient windows and non-volatile organic compound paints, carpets and floors. WindSong won a Georgie Award for its environmental efforts from the Canadian Home Building Association. Its Green Solutions Team are working on solar power, ground-heat, rain water catchment, green roofs and electric car projects. North Vancouver's Quayside won a city environmental award for recycling over 30 materials, and have a grey water system, triple bin composting and rain catchment.</div> <bR> <div> Each resident has their own reasons for joining the experiment.</div> <div> WindSong's Patrick Meyer remembers thinking, "community was fantastic, for others." Yet over a few visits the 39-year-old father of two girls saw it could work for him too. He and his wife joined in 2003.</div> <div> They stay because "life is much richer when you form friendships with your neighbours. The more I put into our community, the more I get out," says Meyer, a board member of the Canadian Cohousing Network, a Langley non-profit supporting cohousing groups.</div> <div> And he can let his six-year-old roam free without fear of strangers.</div> <div> "Cohousing has given me a higher-quality lifestyle and is a safe place for my kids to grow up. I can't imagine a better place to raise my kids."</div> <div> Creekside Commons residents Pam and Don Monroe, 61-year-old retired oil industry accountants, had a home in Calgary before discovering cohousing and weren't inclined to move. But, Monroe recalls, "we saw the project had the values we wanted to live by."</div> <div> They moved into Creekside in July 2007 and now live with 66 others, aged two to 87. Munroe says the lifestyle is its own reward.</div> <div> "Sharing resources with others and having a smaller footprint is sometimes daunting but it works. The benefits include . . . helping others with projects both big and small and learning to live with others in times of joy and conflict." n</div> <div> Burnaby cohousing consultant Ronaye Matthew is the first to agree creating cohousing involves conflict. Decisions must be consensual and therefore time-consuming. Finding a site is demanding and financing an unconventional project can be difficult.</div> <div> "One of the reasons there aren't a lot around is it's complex. We're developed a bureaucracy around land development that makes it very hard if you are not a professional," says the owner of Cohousing Development Consulting.</div> <div> Matthew had been working in real-estate development since 1977, but in 1994, while working on subdivision tracts, she had a crisis of conscience: What was she doing helping to create isolating, environmentally unfriendly communities?</div> <div> "I felt I wasn't participating in any effective way to create change on the planet. I thought, what am I doing with my life?" she recalls.</div> <bR> <div> By chance, she heard about a Vernon group starting an EcoVillage. Intrigued, she offered her services. The project never completed, but she began working with Quayside Village in North Vancouver. Her second project, Cranberry Commons, became a personal one: she moved in with partner Brad Cassidy in 2001. She loves the amenities: book clubs, organic bulk purchasing, potlucks, yoga, movie, music and craft nights, and car-sharing. She's since facilitated projects in Roberts Creek and Courtenay, and most recently with a new Bowen Island community called Bel Terra.</div> <div> But despite the growing number of developments, Matthew agrees cohousing has an image problem.</div> <div> People hear co-housing and immediately think it means cohabitation, or units are subsidized by the government, or it's a co-op or a commune for those with shared beliefs. The truth is cohos own their own private units, pay market price, are structured as stratas and welcome residents from a range of backgrounds and faiths.</div> <bR> <div> Matthew says "there are deeper concerns about 'Am I going to have my privacy? Am I going to like my neighbours? Is it going to be too intense? Is it going to be too much work?'"</div> <div> For her, such concerns were quickly dispelled. A self-professed introvert, Matthew said "the idea of all this interaction with neighbours was frightening." But it worked out.</div> <div> "My neighbours knew I was an introvert and respect that. I actually have as much privacy as I need."</div> <bR> <div> Cohousing developments have other advantages: they are better insulated from crime.</div> <div> With their focus on communal spaces, they adhere to Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles. Common areas and shared spaces mean more eyes on the alert for trouble.</div> <div> Gregory Saville, former RCMP officer and CPTED consultant, notes that "building stronger social cohesion in neighbourhoods . . . has been shown to enhance physical territoriality." In other words: unified neighbours take ownership of their community, which in turn reduces opportunity for crime.</div> <div> Beyond the practical benefits, there are psychological pluses too.</div> <div> The community becomes extended family. Case in point? In September 2006, WindSong hosted its first wedding of two residents. Neighbours not only attended the backyard wedding, but acted as servers, baked a cookie-cake and performed music at the ceremony.</div> <div> In Roberts Creek, residents celebrated their first cohousing-born baby, Esme, in 2007 -- neighbours woke to her cries at 2 a.m. and held a party for her in November.</div> <div> At Cranberry Commons, an 84-year-old member fell and injured her shoulder -- the type of accident that sends many elderly who live alone into a nursing home. But not here. There was someone to take her to and from the hospital and residents cooked her meals and got groceries until she healed.</div> <div> And that, says Michaelis, is cohousing in a nutshell: a place "where friends become neighbors and neighbours become friends."</div> <bR> <div> © The Vancouver Province 2008</div> <div> original story available at: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/unwind/story.html?id=0479bbca-f532-4e6d-bd69-1406f949940f&p=1</div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=18 BGCOLOR="#A6CAF0" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>