We were very fortunate at last Monday’s Viva networking meeting to have Robin Allison from Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood in Auckland share their extensive experience in establishing their co-housing community. It creating co-housing communities, much focus is placed on the the physical structures – the buildings, the land, the gardens, etc. – but Robin emphasised that it is also critical to have a strong foundation to the community driving the development.
Robin covered the following areas in her presentation:
- An introduction to Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood (which is a 32 home cohousing neighbourhood set on 1.29 hectares in the suburb of Ranui in Waitakere City, Auckland)
- The phases of community creation
- Membership agreements
- Ownership structure (unit titles)
- Consensus based decision making
- Group structure during development
- Development options
- Resources
The Earthsong website outlines more of the story and contains a wealth of further resources: earthsong.org.nz
Jürg and Jane then went on to frame many of these issues in the Viva context. A post on that will follow soon.
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