FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
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Overview of Cohousing:
1. What is cohousing? Cohousing is a form of collaboratively-planned housing. Cohousing communities consist of privately owned, fully-equipped homes plus extensive common areas. They are designed and managed by residents who have chosen to live in a close-knit neighborhood with a healthy blend of privacy and community.
Currently, there are 93 cohousing communities in 37 states, with another 100 communities under construction or in the planning phase. Nearby communities include Sacramento, Davis, Nevada City, Chico, Pleasant Hill, Berkeley, Emeryville, and Santa Rosa.
2. How is it different from a condominium? Legally, Sycamore Village will function just like any other condominium development. It will have a homeowners association, shared grounds, and common facilities. But unlike typical condominiums, cohousing is designed by the future residents specifically to foster a sense of community, which begins during the planning phase and will continue long after the ribbon cutting. By the move-in date, residents have typically met regularly for 3+ years during the planning and development.
By giving careful consideration to the placement of residences, parking, walkways, swimming pool, play and garden areas, open spaces, and the common house, cohousing maximizes opportunities for neighbors to cross paths throughout the day. Cohousers often will eat supper together in the common house several times a week. They also usually organize and host community events regularly.
3. Do cohousing residents share any common political or religious orientation? Cohousers typically represent a diverse cross-section of the population. Cohousers desire to live lightly on the earth and cooperatively with one another. Very few of the future residents of Sycamore Village knew each other prior to the first orientation meeting, but new friendships have developed and deepened while working together toward a common goal.
4. How does cohousing differ from communal living? Some people unfamiliar with cohousing may imagine a 60’s style hippie commune, but there is no similarity. Cohousing homes are like any other single-family, owner-occupied home, except they tend to be smaller, closer together, and more energy efficient. Each family has a private household and the common areas are managed through a homeowners association.
Cohousers encourage active participation in the life the neighborhood and there is an opportunity to share common meals several times per week at the common house.
5. What is the Common House? The Common House is the social center of the community. It will be designed to include a large kitchen, dining area, lounge, guest rooms, laundry, mailroom and other activity rooms such as kids and teens rooms, music room, and workshop. A large adjoining patio, pool, and toddler's play area will provide additional outdoor eating and gathering space.
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About Sycamore Village
6. Who is behind Sycamore Village? A growing group of families have come together for the purpose of planning a neighborhood where they will each purchase a house. Instead of each family buying an individual lot and doing an individual house design, they are buying the land together and cooperatively planning the development to maximize open space and provide moderately priced, environmentally sensitive homes. Nearly all of the families already live in Sacramento County. Sycamore Village will have a total of 35 families. Sycamore Village is being created by the people who are going to live in the village and function within the community, rather than by a developer who builds for a profit, then leaves without caring about the effect of the development on the surrounding neighbors.
Current members range from 25 to 66 years of age. Cohousers are singles and couples, workers and retirees. Two families have children living at home, with ages ranging from toddlers to elementary school age. Please see our "About us" page to get to know us better.
7. Who are CoHousing Partners? Sacramento Suburban Cohousing Group, LLC (our legal entity) has contracted with CoHousing Partners to provide project management and design services for our project. CoHousing Partners, founded by Kathryn McCamant, Jim Leach, and Rick Mockler, has helped 29 other cohousing groups in the United States design and build their neighborhoods.
For more information about CoHousing Partners and our architects McCamant and Durrett, please visit www.CoHousingPartners.com and www.McCamant-Durrett.com.
8. How much do the homes cost? This is an upscale development with many energy-efficient and ecological design features. We offer extensive shared facilities such as the common house, pool, vegetable garden, fruit trees, and green open space. Houses range in size from 2-bedroom, 870 square-foot flats to 4-bedroom, 1700 square-foot townhouses. Preliminary prices are posted on the Site Plan page. Each house is privately owned and comes complete with its own kitchen, large porch and small backyard. These are projected 2010 prices and reflect our ecological design features, common facilities, and small scale.
9. How do I join the group? Your first step is to fill out our survey (see Home Page for Word verson or PDF version) so we have your contact information. Then come to one of our monthly potlucks where you can meet us and ask questions. We have simple guidelines for joining the group as either a Full or Associate Member. Site selection seniority is based on the date a household becomes a Full Member. We appreciate diversity and welcome new members who share our Vision and Values (See the About Us page).
10. Can I get updates on the progress of the project? Yes. We have an announcement email list that anyone can join. Just send an email message with your request to mmaskall@pacbell.net. Include "cohousing" in the subject line.
11. What is the design for Sycamore Village Cohousing? For details on the site design, visit the Site Plan page.
12. Where is the proposed site for Sycamore Village? Sycamore Village proposes to build on a 3.5 acre lot with beautiful rolling landscape and mature sycamore and oak trees. We are saving most of these trees and are even planning our development around them. The address is 6041 Illinois Avenue at Greenback in Orangevale. Please do not trespass on the property to view it. There is a family currently living there until we begin construction. We will schedule site tours in the future.
13. What is the timeline for completing this development? Plans have been submitted to the County, and, if all goes as planned, the move-in date will be by late 2010.
14. Who is building the development? In short, the future residents are. We have a vision that we are working towards and are funding it personally. To help with the architectural planning, construction, and process we have teamed up with CoHousing Partners.
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For more information…
15. How is this development pedestrian centered? First and foremost, these homes are within walking distance of schools, express bus lines, shopping, a fitness center, a restaurant, and medical facilities. The majority of people who live in Orangevale and suburban Sacramento County have to drive everywhere. In contrast, Sycamore Village residents will be able to walk to the local market for milk and eggs, eat at local restaurants, and patronize local shops, while leaving their cars at home. In cohousing, walking becomes a way of life, as demonstrated by our willingness to keep our cars in a designated parking area 200-300 feet from our homes.
16. What traffic impact will Sycamore Village have, versus a regular subdivision? We foresee creating less traffic than a traditional subdivision. When you can walk to destinations in the same or less time than it takes to walk to your car, drive, find a parking place, and walk to your destination, there is an incentive to walk. A regular development puts cars as close to houses as possible. We prefer the advantages of having cars away from people and are willing to walk some distance from our homes to our cars to enjoy those advantages.
In addition, because of our desire to live cooperatively with our neighbors, we will naturally tend to share trips to local stores and other destinations, to order food in bulk to distribute among ourselves, and to rely on carpooling and shared vehicles to meet our transportation needs.
In an independent study done in Colorado, the Lafayette Planning Department determined that residents of cohousing make 25% fewer car trips than typical home owners. When you feel free to borrow a cup of sugar from your neighbors, when you have a baby sitter next door and your children's favorite playmates just a few houses away, when your neighborhood includes the amenities that make your life comfortable and fun, you have much less reason to drive anywhere. In cohousing, social interaction and recreation can happen easily and spontaneously right within the neighborhood, with less reliance on our cars.
17. What impact will this have on the surrounding community? Sycamore Village will be pedestrian friendly, patronize local businesses, and offer a meeting place for the community. The Common House could be used for Scout meetings, Neighborhood Watch meetings, pool parties, Fourth of July parties, and Halloween parties, etc. Neighbors are gaining a free community development department and a meeting space.
18. What is Smart Growth and the Commercial Corridor Plan? Smart Growth means planning out an area's foreseeable growth with the most efficient use of land and resources. Smart Growth helps prevent sprawl and pollution. It promotes a sense of community in new and expanding areas, and it also promotes and protects economic vitality throughout the region. Sacramento County has been revising their General Plan to incorporate Smart Growth strategies, including building on existing assets and transportation routes and encouraging pedestrian-friendly communities.
The County has created a Commercial Corridor Plan outlining 14 areas along transit and commercial corridors for rezoning and development, including Greenback Lane. By focusing development within the Commercial Corridor, mass transit becomes more accessible, walking more likely, the community more involved, and the local economy stronger. Our lot at Illinois Avenue and Greenback Lane is included in the Greenback Commercial Corridor. Sycamore Village fits with these strategies and offers the higher density and residential infill encouraged by the Corridor Plan. We support Smart Growth in our area so Orangevale, as well as Sacramento County, can be a pleasant place to live in the generations to come.
View http://www.sacregionblueprint.org/sacregionblueprint/the_project/smart_growth.cfm for more information.
19. What is the proposed rezoning and why does Sycamore Village need it? We want to build at a density of 10 homes per acre for a total of 35 units on our 3.5 acres. Eight of the homes will be flats, with one unit above another. The remainder will be two-story townhomes. Under LU-14 of the current Sacramento County General Plan, the Sycamore Village property should be zoned at least 10 homes per acre because of being within 1/8 mile of a bus stop. Under the current zoning of 4 homes per acre, 14 homes could be built on 3.5 acres. The nature of cohousing calls for clustered homes to create a community, so we have requested a rezone.
20. Would Sycamore Village set a precedent for developing other open land in Orangevale? Our development is within the County’s Commercial Corridor Plan for Greenback Lane and would be rezoned accordingly. The open lots along the selected Corridors are few and far between. Our project would only set a precedent for whether we as a County plan to follow these strategies or to continue to sprawl haphazardly. Only lots that fall within the Greenback Commercial Corridor could potentially fall under the same scrutiny. Some neighbors are concerned that several nearby undeveloped lots would be rezoned and developed. None of these fall within the Commercial Corridor, and thus they would not be subject to rezoning. By following the Corridor plan, these open lots outside the Corridor would be better protected because areas within the Corridor would be more appealing for higher density development.
21. What about property values in the neighborhood? If any change occurs in neighborhood property values, they would likely rise. No one can predict the future. Historically, however, property values have increased near cohousing communities across the country. Home buyers typically pay a premium for pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use neighborhoods. The most valuable properties in the Sacramento region (per square foot) are in McKinley Park, a 70-year-old pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use, mixed-density development near 30th and H streets. Overall, McKinley Park has about nine dwellings to the acre, but around the park itself, it's much more compact.
22. What is ecological design and how does Sycamore Village intend to use it? We are committed to ecological design, which incorporates many energy-efficient features to reduce our impact on the environment. This is becoming very timely, as we are seeing more studies in the news showing individual houses and energy use contribute to greenhouse gases and other environmental concerns. The architects we have chosen, McCamant and Durrett, regularly include ecological, or sustainable, features such as:
* Sustainably harvested lumber
* Sustainable flooring like bamboo (a fast growing grass which replenishes itself quickly)
* Smaller house design (meaning less energy needed to build, to heat, and to cool)
* Passive solar orientation and shading
* Active solar heating
* Low water and energy use appliances and fixtures
* Radiant flooring heating systems (warms where it is needed - the floor, and eliminates allergens circulating through a duct system)
* Pervious concrete (to minimize water runoff and protect local watersheds)
* Solar panels, or photovoltaics
* Responsible water use
* Passive cooling
* Permaculture landscape principles
* Low-E squared windows (keeps heat in during winter and out during summer),
* Thicker and denser gypsum board throughout (adds thermal mass to store solar energy and for light cooling),
* Lightweight concrete floor (absorbs and distributes solar energy in winter and cooling in summer)
* Extensive natural light (minimal electric lighting in daytime)
* Non-toxic interior materials (low VOC paints, water-based clear finishes, wool carpet and marmoleum in place of sheet vinyl, solid wood and plywood to avoid the formaldehyde content and off-gassing of subfloors, sheathing and interior trim)
* Photoelectric smoke detectors (instead of common radiation-based ones, to eliminate the use of radioactive materials)
* Low-toxicity wood preservatives
* And much more…
23. What about privacy? We value a balance between privacy and community. For our own privacy we will have private homes and backyards. For privacy between our site and surrounding neighbors, we are preserving existing trees and planting additional trees. We are setting houses back 80' from the Southern property line, with parking as a buffer. Due to the elevation difference, the distance, and the trees, we cannot see the neighbors' backyards from our windows.
24. What impact will this development have on County utilities such as water and sewer? To enhance the capacity of existing County water and sewer services, Sycamore Village Cohousing will be paying for the improvements and upgrades deemed necessary by County planning. Members of the Planning Staff have assured us that our project will have no negative impact on existing County services.
25. What measures are being taken to ensure fire safety? Like every development in Orangevale, our project must be approved for fire safety by the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire Department. All of our construction will meet or exceed current fire safety codes.
26. What about grading? Some grading always has to be done to accommodate houses, driveways, and parking spaces and to optimize accessibility for people with disabilities. Grading for this project will be careful and minimal, since the buildings are clustered.
27. How will drainage be impacted? Vegetated drainage swales will be used to capture storm runoff onsite. There should be no negative impact to local drainage.
28. How will light pollution be minimized? Every attempt will be made to minimize light pollution through low-intensity path lighting rather than standard street lamps. Outdoor lighting will not be directed toward other residences and will not increase the lighting intensity on surrounding residential properties.
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