Iowa City Might Get Cohousing! What is Cohousing?

Cohousing units at Yarrow Ecovillage in British Columbia, Canada. Photo by Sunray, courtesy of Wikimedia.

You might have seen the Gazette article, Iowa City Cohousing Project Moving Forward recently. The organization Friends of Iowa City wants to create a cohousing development in Iowa City called Prairie Hill. The group has been meeting since 2009 and in April 2013 purchased 7.8 acres of land on Iowa City’s west side to develop as a cohousing community. Right now they’re asking the city to rezone the land so it can be developed as a cohousing community.

What exactly does the term cohousing mean though? A cohousing development is a mix of elements that fall into the framework of New Urbanism with added communal resources and and a greater emphasis on public space. It is also part of a larger framework of community development called intentional communities. An intentional community is “a planned residential community designed from the start to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork.” Wikipedia, where I took that definition from, uses kibbutzim, survivalist compounds and ecovillages as examples of intentional communities to give you an idea of how disparate communities can be under this framework.

According to Cohousing.com, these are the six “defining characteristics” of cohousing:

1. Participatory Process — Future residents take an active role in designing the cohousing development.
2. Neighborhood Design — Pedestrian oriented, with houses clustered close together to maximize shared space.
3. Common Facilities — Shared facilities, including a common house with a kitchen, laundry, guest rooms and other facilities the residents determine they want or need.
4. Resident Management — Residents manage and maintain the cohousing facilities and participate in community events like shared dinners.
5. Consensus Decision Making — Residents make decisions about the cohousing development as a group and attempt, whenever possible, to reach a consensus solution.
6. No Shared Community Economy — “The community is not a source of income for its residents.”

I asked Carolyn Dyer, a board member for Prairie Hill, about the process they’ve been using to develop Iowa City’s first cohousing community and what kind of community they hope to create.

Ben Kaplan: How did you learn about cohousing and what makes you want to live in a cohousing community? When did you get involved with Friends of Iowa City and Prairie Hill?

Carolyn Dyer: I read an article a number of years ago about what I think was a cohousing community in California and thought that is something I would enjoy. I learned that an acquaintance was involved with the group here several years ago and whenever I saw her asked about the status. Then I saw a brief notice about a meeting in November 2012 and went. I immediately knew I was interested. I joined some members on a field trip to a cohousing community in Madison WI and I was sure I wanted to join. About a year after I began attending meetings, I became a member of the 5-person Board of Managers. We do all the planning and work involved in establishing the community. We meet every Monday evening, without exception.

Ben: Assuming the rezoning goes as planned do you know who is going to develop the land for you? Do they have experience building cohousing communities?

Carolyn: We do all the planning and work involved in establishing the community. We meet every Monday evening, without exception. The Board of Managers serves as the developer. We chose not to hire a separate developer. We have a contractor for the common house so far. We haven’t chosen a contractor for the individual units. We have two architects and a civil engineering firm working for us. None of us has first-hand experience building cohousing communities, but among us we have a lot of relevant formal and informal experience and we are learning a lot as we go. One member (Barb Bailey) has attended national cohousing conferences and she has visited several cohousing communities. She talks at length with people in the Madison community as we progress.”

Ben: Do you know what kind of neighborhood features and events you want to have in Prairie Hill?

Carolyn: We are building community as we develop the community. I mentioned the board of manager meetings each week, and there are often other committee meetings in a week as well. We have two meetings with other members each month, one of them a potluck dinner. We take field trips together to places that promise to give us ideas, such as other people’s small houses, a LEED certified facility, another facility with the type of heating and cooling system we think we will adopt, places using solar and geothermal energy, IKEA to see kitchens, an ecovillage in Fairfield, the Madison cohousing community, etc. Field trips provide a lot of occasions to interact and discuss and get to know each other. With a couple of exceptions, none of us knew the other members before we got involved. The board makes decisions by consensus and the ultimate cohousing community will make decisions by consensus. Doing this give us lots of opportunity to hear our diverse points of view as we move towards agreement.”

Ben: The Gazette article doesn’t talk about the common house, one of the major features of a cohousing development. Can you tell me about the common house at Prairie Hill?

Carolyn: The common house is central to the community, both physically and symbolically. All the individual units — which are duplexes — surround the community as much as our site permits. We will get our mail there, meaning most of us will be there at least once a day, able to interact with whomever else is there. We will have a large kitchen and dining room where we will share meals a few times a week. (A cooking committee with prepare meals some days and we may have pot luck dinners on other days.) There will be an exercise room, a workshop, a teen room, a playroom for small children, 3 guest rooms, a smaller dining room for special events or meetings, a laundry and a storm shelter. There also will be six condo apartments in the common house. The apartments will be owned by their occupants rather than rented. The locations of guest rooms, exercise room, play rooms, a special dining room, and workshop in the common house mean we don’t need these spaces in individual units, so they can be small. We will have kitchens in individual units and some will have laundry machines.

An architects rendering of the common house that will be built at Prairie Hill.

One of the major goals for Prairie Hill is for it to be a diverse, multi-generational community. “I would also add that parents who live in cohousing have said that their children benefit from growing up in cohousing,” said Annie Tucker, another member of the Prairie Hill Board, “They end up playing with kids of all ages and making friends with adults. They take part and help out in community meals, events and work days.”

“I can imagine a neighbor showing up at my door and saying they need to do a quick errand and could their three and five-year-olds stay with us for a half hour while they are gone,” said Tucker.