what is “sustainable land use”?

The cohousing group I am a part of, Laurel Creek Commons is developing quite nicely. We’ve approved our Vision Document, and are sinking our teeth into a Mission Document, membership policy, and other big matters. However, one issue seems to loom large in all of our minds: location. Do we as a community want to locate ourselves in an urban/suburban area, or a more rural/agricultural setting? No small question.

My personal preference is to look for agricultural land. It provides us with room to grow as much food as we could possibly need in a post peak oil world (when it finally comes), first and foremost. It is also two orders of magnitude cheaper than urban land. Extra space will also allow us to become more energy-independent (if not entirely so) without worry of lot line restrictions or by-laws, not to mention the much smaller amount of solar exposure an urban lot gets as compared to a rural acreage.

Of course, those are not the only considerations to where to build. Land stewardship is part of Laurel Creek Common’s vision, and so we have to determine what is best for the land.

 

Sharing the knowledge base

If you are interested in cohousing, you are probably already aware of the Cohousing-L e-mail list. (If not, go subscribe now!) I’ve been a member for less than a year, but even in that short time I’ve noticed many requests from individuals and groups asking for samples and examples of existing cohousing groups’ documentation; CC&Rs, by-laws, house rules, membership approval procedures, and the like. So when someone mentioned that it would be a good idea to gather all such documents in one place, I wholeheartedly agreed, and volutneered to do something about it.

 

Cohousing, Part 3

Thus far I’ve discussed what cohousing is, and my involvement in cohousing locally, but I haven’t really touched on why cohousing belongs here in the Sustainapedia. Can the model of how we house ourselves really contribute to the sustainability of our dwellings? It sure can.

Cohousing in and of itself isn’t necessarily a sustainable practice. (It’s a good practice, yes - anything that promotes actually getting to know your neighbours and re-introducing that “small town feeling” into our anonymous suburbs is just peachy as far as I’m concerned.) There is the potential for more sustainable living with cohousing, and in large it comes from the many ways in which cohousing promotes densification.

 

Cohousing, Part 2

Yesterday I started telling you about how I got involved in cohousing, and ranted a bit about how I think current neighbourhoods aren’t designed to allow neighbours to actually get to know each other. I’m no planner - I don’t even play one on TV - but seven years in the same house should introduce me to more neighbours than it has.

Back to cohousing. Having gotten Grand River Intentional Communities (or GRIC, as we call it) off the ground, our small-but-growing group started sharing cohousing resource materials, and decided to hold shared potluck vegetarian-friendly meals on a monthly basis. The group was originally called Kitchener-Waterloo Area Retrofit Cohousing (or KWARC), as both cofounders had a keen interest in retrofit cohousing. That sounded like a fine idea to me - it really didn’t matter how we did cohousing, the model of cohousing itself was what attracted me. Of course, I wondered how we could retrofit older homes to make them energy-efficient without breaking the bank, but that was a worry for a future time.

 

Cohousing Part 1

A few years back I learned about the concept of ecovillages. With my interest in sustainable residential buildings, renewable energy, and a desire to have a big organic garden, an ecovillage sounded like a great idea! I posted an entry at the Intentional Community Database, and dreamed of my strawbale home out in the country. As the ICDb.org entry was my only method of publicity beyond word-of-mouth, it quickly flopped after garnering only piddling interest.

In the summer of 2006, however, friends of mine started a group that would become Grand River Intentional Communities, with a mandate to promote cohousing in the area. It immediately piqued my interest, and after reading through the brochure they had prepared, I was hooked.