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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us January 8, 2005 Cohousing has extra benefits By Melanie Mindlin Ashland On Dec. 14, Fordyce Street Cohousing Community brought an application to the Planning Commission which was denied. I am the owner of the property and the designer of the project. The City of Ashland has a criteria for rezoning property for the purpose of providing affordable housing. In conjunction with Habitat for Humanity, we will meet that criteria by providing 2 low-income units. We propose to build the other 11 units at prices available to households near median income, with target prices between $165,000 and $250,000 (about 75 percent of comparable new construction in Ashland). I am working on this project because of my personal dedication to the concepts of cohousing and affordability, not to make lots of money. If I develop the property conventionally, I could expect to gain an additional $300,000 or more. I see this amount, as well as the commitment of myself and others helping with this project, as a gift to the community. This plan exemplifies the strategies suggested by the Affordable Housing Study and Action Plan adopted by the City. We are proposing a plan for 13 units on 1.3 acres. It's an odd leftover piece of land that was not included in the street plan for the area, and the plan provides a creative use of the property with minimal street coverage and pedestrian access to most of the homes. All of the setbacks and overall lot coverage meet the current zoning standards. Density calculations assume the street coverage needs of a standard subdivision approach. Due to the fact that we are not covering a large part of the property with a city street, the overall density would be similar to that of the surrounding neighborhood. View corridors, open space, pervious surface and landscaping will all be much greater than if the property is developed conventionally. Some immediate neighbors to this property brought in a long list of objections to the development. The planning commissioners made little attempt to consider whether these complaints would apply only to this project or would be the same for any development on the property. Surprisingly, the neighbor complaints came after meeting with them, working to address their issues, and then getting positive feedback from the planning staff regarding our adjustments. Fordyce Street Cohousing Community would like to hear more from the neighbors about their ideas and concerns because we want to make a contribution to the neighborhood. The City of Ashland has recently decided not to expand its growth boundaries in the next 10 year plan. This puts intense pressure on the few remaining pieces of developable land left. I believe the city has an obligation to the community as a whole to see that those properties are used to achieve more important goals than the building of a few more very expensive houses. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Women's & Men's Slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks heloc libor rate Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weightloss Products Memory Foam Mattress afsa studentloans home equity loans teleconferencing W2 Forms fasa student loans Matchmaking & Dating Scripts African Safari Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation wholesale diamonds Currancy Exchange web conferencing Online Casinos Community Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams