Tag Archives: cohousing

State changes set to open up ‘congregate residences’ in Seattle

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New legislation under consideration by the Seattle City Council this week could create more co-living and congregate-style housing in the city.

With changes in state law, legislation coming in front of the council’s land use committee this week would update the city’s regulations to remove decade-old state restrictions placed on congregate housing that were hoped to stem the tide of microhousing.

The city says the restrictions worked and the production of new congregate housing dropped in Seattle. Changes in state law to open up zoning to new co-llving developments are now sparking an update that will allow the housing type in more areas of the city including all multifamily and even lowrise areas of the city.

Under the regulations, congregate residence means “a use in which sleeping rooms are independently rented and lockable and provide living and sleeping space, and residents share kitchen facilities and other common elements with other residents in a building.” Continue reading →

Capitol Hill’s cohousing pioneers are ready to move in on 12th Ave

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The residents gathered for a rooftop portrait (Images: Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing)

The residents gathered for a rooftop portrait (Images: Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing)

“At some point you need to have that bigger vision in mind and that long term goal.”

Getting along with apartment building neighbors requires at least a modicum of social grace. Getting along with potentially lifelong neighbors that are also equal owners in a partnership to develop and own a building mandates serious training.

After breaking ground in 2014, and years of planning prior to that including classes in consensus decision making, the members of Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing are ready to move into their new home (and their 12th and Howell building is almost ready for them). You can get a sneak peek of the building on Saturday from 10 AM to 4PM as part of National Cohousing Open House day.

The 12th Ave cohousing development isn’t a traditional cooperative. CHUC residents are their own developers. While tenants in a cooperative or condo building have to eat the costs of a developer’s profit, CHUC residents say there are keeping their costs as low as possible and will essentially impose their own rent control once they have moved in. The nine families making up the community are all equal partners in an company that obtained a loan to develop the building.

Looking back on what it took to get to this point CHUC co-founder Mike Mariano paused when asked if he would do it all again.

“If you think about it too much, you would never do it,” said Mariano, a principal architect at Schemata Workshop. “At some point you need to have that bigger vision in mind and that long term goal.”

As Mariano and the rest of the CHUC members discovered, financing is not easy when you’re not trying to simply maximize profits. Developing the property as a community was a means to an end for CHUC — ends that include communal meals and work in the rooftop garden, longterm stability, and a tight-knit support group that will hopefully last a lifetime. Continue reading →