Four years ago, Jana Vander Kloet and her husband Tim Cassidy toured Prairie Sky Cohousing Co-operative, a combination of privately owned townhouses and apartment buildings that share a large common house.
“I saw it and I thought: ‘I could move in here tomorrow,’” says the Calgary college instructor and mother of two children. “It was a very community-oriented approach to living.”
The idea of finding a place with a better sense of community located closer to work had already been percolating in her mind.
“I was driving home in a blizzard and thinking: ‘Why am I commuting these great distances?” she says of one of her drives home to Airdrie from SAIT Polytechnic.
“Could I get a bunch of friends together — and could we afford a piece of land closer to the centre of the city if we pooled our resources and had a common garden and common amenities? As soon as I saw (Prairie Sky), I thought: ‘Yeah, that would be the way to do it.’”
Completed in 2003, Prairie Sky has 18 units of two- and three-bedroom townhouses and apartments, and a 3,200-square-foot common house, located on 0.3 hectares of inner-city land.
Its legal structure is strata title housing co-operative, where each household owns its own home and share of common facilities.
A few months after visiting the co-operative in the northwest community of Mount Pleasant, Vander Kloet and Cassidy, a teacher, began gathering like-minded people together to establish their own co-housing project.
Dragonfly Cohousing took flight.
Co-housing is a form of intentional community, originating in Denmark, that combines the best of shared resources and community living with privately owned homes, says Vander Kloet.
It’s a living arrangement that fosters relationships, and a sense of belonging and family, that often deeply resonates with people who did not grow up where they are now living.
“It’s about community,” she says. “We’ve lived in suburbia for six or seven years now and we hardly know our neighbours.
“Having a rapport with the people living around you is important — being able to give to people who live around you, as well as being able to accept the help when you need it. It’s that kind of approach.”
Dragonfly Cohousing, Alberta’s second co-housing project, is a $14-million, 36-unit development at the corner of First Avenue and Third Street N.E. in Crescent Heights.
Of the one- to four-bedroom units, 22 have already been sold to families and individuals representing an age range from children to seniors.
Units sell from $318,000 to $525,000. Dragonfly will have condo fees that are yet to be determined.
The site is sloped, offering great views of downtown, with units built around central amenities encompassing the philosophy of passivHaus design — a way of using the best, most efficient designs for a given space.
The 7,000-square-foot, three-level common house will include a large kitchen and dining area to be used for communal meals once or twice per week, guest rooms, and large meeting rooms.
About two-thirds of the current membership gathered on a recent blustery Saturday morning to mark the sign-raising on the lot of their future home.
It was a warm way of welcoming the thought of breaking ground in the fall and being one step closer to their new homes.
CONSENSUS BASED
Curious about Dragonfly Cohousing?
Meet some of the members and find out more at the next information session on the project on Friday, May 4, at the West Hillhurst Community Centre at 1940 6th Ave. N.W.
The event is slated for 7 p.m.
Founded in 2010, Dragonfly Cohousing is a group of 22 equity households dedicated to building a project where residents can share a sense of community.
It will incorporate some of the typical features of cohousing: a common house for community activities and shared meals, and a pedestrian-friendly layout with underground parking.
The project is designed, financed and will be managed by residents using a consensus-based decision-making process.
Consisting of single people, families, couples and seniors, members come from a wide variety of backgrounds, education and occupations. The unique project is designed by Calgary’s Norr Architects and Planners.
Visit dragonflycohousing.ca
Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/Dragonfly+development+takes+flight/6533009/story.html#ixzz1tMWaje1F
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