Community By Design

At the Spring Gathering of Quaker Earthcare Witness, speaker Daniel Wahl mentioned cohousing. Since that may be a new term for some Friends, I want to share my wife’s and my experience after living in a cohousing community for a quarter century.

Heartwood Cohousing is near Durango, Colorado. My wife, Gail, and I moved to Durango in 1976 to raise our two sons. It had a college, a ski area, and a small Friends Meeting. Heartwood Cohousing was started many years later.

Cohousing is a type of intentional community where people share many things and experiences. Wikipedia defines it as: “an intentional, self-governing, cooperative community where residents live in private homes often clustered around shared space.”

While that’s accurate, I explain cohousing this way: When you move into a new house, you might meet your neighbors—and you might not interact with them often. We live in cohousing because we enjoy interacting with other people daily.

Heartwood is not a senior community; we enjoy being surrounded by all ages. The youngest resident was born this February. He and his five-year-old brother live with their parents in the other half of our duplex. Gail and I are among the oldest, at 82. We love passing by young girls playing on the pathway when we walk to the Common House for the mail.

We do not share our homes, finances, or most meals. A key goal of cohousing is to improve interpersonal relationships. We share potluck Mexican food on Tuesdays, a delicious Common Meal cooked by residents on Wednesdays, and a potluck on Fridays. We also share resources, like the well-supplied tools in our workshop, the paths on our 350 beautiful acres, and many other facilities. Our 24 homes are clustered to minimize disturbance to the surrounding land. We share the work to maintain all this, and we share our joys and sorrows.

In addition to standard covenants, we agree to many interpersonal guidelines. These guide our relationships with each other and with our land. For instance, our Vision and Values’ Stewardship Agreement states:

“We live gently on the Earth. We are thankful for Nature’s resources being conscious to take good care of them and use them efficiently.”

When we considered joining the cohousing community, I was attracted for several reasons. Besides improving relationships, I was intrigued by the gains in efficiency and ways to decrease our impact on the natural world. It was also time to downsize since both our sons had left home. By living closely with friends and neighbors, we can share tools and resources. If a recipe needs three eggs and we only have two, we just knock on a neighbor’s door. Furthermore, the homes use passive solar design and are built to be very energy efficient.

Although we were among the first to install solar panels, many more arrays exist now. Several years ago, we used the community’s Renewable Energy Fund to put 10 solar panels on the workshop roof. These powered most of the workshop and the large Common House, the center of our community. With the advent of electric vehicles (EVs), we needed more power and recently added 10 more panels. A current challenge is figuring out how to make EV charging available to all members, as we hope EVs will continue to be popular.

Growing up in Philadelphia, my best friend lived in Awbury, a Quaker community established in the mid-19th century. Although many people in cohousing wouldn’t realize it, cohousing shares some attributes with Quakerism. Decisions are made by consensus, people are treated equally, and integrity is assumed. Furthermore, we strive for peace among ourselves and the world, and most of all, we know the value of community.

Gail and I are planning on “aging in place.” We continue to enjoy living here, surrounded by friends who offer help and support when needed. The work Heartwood expects of every member helps keep us fit. As we age, we do less work, but we are delighted with the younger families who have moved in.

With so much beautiful acreage, Heartwood has enough land to grow without impinging on our nonhuman neighbors. We are looking forward to “Phase 2,” which will add 14 new all-electric homes, certified as “Zero Energy Ready Homes.” They will bring new friends to our community!

To learn more about cohousing, check out www.cohousing.org. Heartwood’s website, including information about Phase 2, is www.heartwoodcohousing.com

Richard Grossman recently retired from the practice of obstetrics and gynecology in Durango, CO. He continues to work on several population-centered projects. To learn about these, see: www.population-matters.org. He is a member of Durango Monthly Meeting (IMYM).