Group of diverse people enjoying outdoor meal at New Brighton Cohousing.

New Brighton Cohousing

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Home-sharing
  • Suburban

Founding year

  • 2001

What we do

New Brighton Cohousing is an owner-occupied townhouse community, located at 6010-6034 Soquel Drive in Aptos, California, less than one mile from the beach. It was was established in the fall of 2007 when we purchased a townhouse complex.
Currently we are a community of 17 adult members, 5 children, 3 cats and 2 dogs. About half the community works or has worked in social services and the other half in education, the sciences, healthcare, and planning. Our ages range from 2 months to 81. We enjoy each other’s company and share a common interest in living responsibly.
The property consists of 11 individually owned 2-story townhomes in 3 buildings, and one 1600-square-foot common house, all situated around a central courtyard. Our common house has a kitchen, indoor and outdoor dining areas, a children’s room, and two guest rooms.
Community amenities include two group meals per week, two guest rooms, dining and meeting spaces, indoor and outdoor children’s play areas, and a small community garden and orchard.
Our community is designed, owned, and managed by the residents. Membership requires participation in meal preparation once a month, active participation on a committee and an affinity group as well as participation in quarterly community-wide work parties. As much as possible, we do the maintenance and upkeep of the property ourselves.

Our Mission

We are interested in living sustainably as a community with teams to manage the organization and maintain the property. We manage our community together and we also have strong social connections.

  • Purpose
  • Home-sharing
  • Community type
  • Cohousing
  • Activities
  • Property management

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2001
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2007
  • Started living together

Gallery

  • 16 Total members
  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
25

How to join

Prospective members are asked to attend a business, a committee or affinity group meetings, attend a community dinner and/or perhaps participate in a work party. We want to make sure there is a good fit and that the buyer understands what it means to live in cohousing.

Basic expectations or agreements for members

For more information or to arrange a visit, please send an email to Ka**********@***il.com

Primary decision-making authority

  • All Community Members Together

The whole membership decides collectively.

Decision-making process

  • Modified Consensus

Generally seek agreement, but have backup methods when consensus isn’t reached.

Governance structure

  • Collaborative/Horizontal

Power and responsibility are shared relatively equally among members.

Conflict resolution approach

We have a plenary meeting on the second Sunday of every month. We alternate business meetings with community building meetings.

Economic model

  • Independent Finances

Members maintain separate personal finances with minimal sharing.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • Members need to pay fees, dues, or similar to live there on a per month or per year basis
  • There is a labor obligation
  • Members typically need to have their own job or other personal source of income to cover their expenses while living in the community?

Additional economic information

Regular fees: Yes
Labor: Yes
Members with pre-existing debt: allowed
With another person, each member pays for and prepares a dinner for the community once a month. All levels of cooking are accepted.

Shared resources and amenities that are accessible to everyone in the community

Common House, Garden(s), Swingsets & play areas

Frequency of communal meals

  • About once a week

Dietary type

  • Vegetarian Only

Dietary restriction

  • People can cook and eat what they want in their own residence

Community activities and engagement

  • Neighborhood, Community Housing, or Homeowner's Association

Substance use culture

  • Substance use appears in public spaces but no pressure
  • Substance use is prohibited in the community
  • Religions
  • Christian
  • Buddhist
  • Jewish
  • Quaker
  • Wiccan, Paganism, or Earth Religions
  • Unitarian Universalist

Gender composition

  • Majority cis (over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Family-focused (many children and parents)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • By a Land Trust, Home Owners Association, or corporation

Setting

  • Suburban

Residential areas outside city centers but within metropolitan regions.

Community type

  • Cohousing

    Private homes with shared common facilities, designed for neighborly
    interaction while maintaining independence.

Self-produced energy

  • Up to 33%

Energy sources used

  • Photovoltaic Solar

Self-produced food

  • Up to 33%

Local, organic, or fair trade food

  • Over 66%

Food systems

  • Community garden
  • Land area size
    0.9 acres

Guest Book

Written reviews are available for plus members. Click here to upgrade.

Location

  • California, United States

New Brighton Cohousing

Needs and Offers

Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace

  • Promoted
Offer
  • Real Estate For Sale
4 days ago

Beautiful 3+ Bed, 2.5 Bath Townhome in Established West Emerald CoHousing, Seattle

A rare home is available at West Emerald Cohousing, an established all-ages intentional community in West Seattle. For those considering a move to the Pacific Northwest—or hoping to join a mature community rather than one still in the forming stages—West Emerald offers decades of community life, beautiful gardens, shared resources and a peaceful setting within the city in a convenient location since 1999. This unit has a unique floor plan that is ideal for co-buying, co-living, or for one household. The home itself offers a flexible 3+ bedroom, 2.5 bath layout: Garden-level room with a separate exterior entrance and half bath—ideal for a home office, studio, guest space or client-facing business Main-level bedroom and full bath, laundry, making one-level living possible Open great room with large windows overlooking gardens filled with birdsong Well-designed kitchen with generous storage and pantry Two additional light-filled spacious bedrooms and a full bath upstairs Thoughtfully maintained and updated Located at the end of a common pathway for added privacy and garden views, Just feet from parking, which is out of view West Emerald community amenities include: Common House with gathering and activity spaces Community meals and events Mature gardens and shared outdoor spaces Workshop/maker spaces and bike barn Exercise room EV charging opportunity Excellent Metro access to Downtown Seattle just minutes away Nestled into a dell, it’s Seattle’s best-kept secret South Seattle College and lifelong learning, NW Wine Academy, the Seattle Chinese Garden are nearby, with easy access to Alki Beach, Lincoln Park, magnet schools, ferries, and the shops and restaurants of the West Seattle Junction. 6000 17th Ave SW, Seattle, WA Is a wonderful opportunity to have your own comfortable, private home while becoming part of a vibrant and well-established Seattle all-ages cohousing community. For more information contact the friendly Realtor at 206-579-9066, or at ki**********@**********te.com who will be happy to meet you there or do a facetime tour.
Offer
  • Professional Services
2 days ago

Community Planning, Facilitation & Coaching for Intentional Communities

Through Radicle Collective, I support intentional communities and the people within them as they navigate the practical and relational work of building life together. My work can include visioning and community planning, facilitated conversations and retreats, decision-making and governance design, conflict transformation, establishing group agreements, culture-building, and individual or group coaching. I work with communities at many stages – whether it’s a few people exploring whether to live together, a fledgling community developing its foundations, or an established community in transition or conflict. I draw from training in psychology, coaching, urban and regional planning, facilitation, Nonviolent Communication, permaculture, and related practices to approach community as a living system – one shaped by individual needs, relationships, shared structures, place, and the connections between them. Rather than bringing a single model for how community should work, I help groups understand what is happening across those different layers, surface what matters, work honestly with difference, and create structures and practices that support connection, agency, belonging, and the values that brought them together in the first place. I’m based in Berlin and available to work online or in person, depending on location and scope. I offer sliding-scale pricing and am open to creative forms of exchange where appropriate. If your community is forming, stuck, changing, or simply wants some skilled outside support for an important conversation, I’d be glad to explore what might be useful. You can learn more about my work and get in touch at radiclecollective.com.
Need
  • Forming Communities
4 weeks ago

Looking for: people building relational capacity, with a view to community

What’s here now: An intention, a framework developed over five years, and a programme running in central Victoria to find people to build with. No land, no group, no timeline. The question this is organised around: What makes a community of people living together sustainable over decades – where people enjoy being there, conflict is low, and the conflict that does arise gets handled in ways people value. The distinctive premise is capacity before formation. Most communities form first and build relational skill afterwards, usually under pressure. This one proposes doing it the other way round: people build the capacities first, and the group forms from people who have them. That includes a working idea about collective capacity – that a group has a ratio, and below some threshold it can’t metabolise its own conflict and starts consuming itself. Roughly: in a group of twenty, perhaps three or four with high capacity, most in the middle, and very few without. Untested, and something this project exists to find out. Governance: Sociocracy, with the intention of testing it meaningfully at scale rather than adopting it nominally. What’s actually happening: A three-week residency at a property near Castlemaine, and a practice group running before it. The medium-term aim is twenty to forty people at a rented facility. The long-term aim is a support hub sharing the framework more widely. What I’m looking for: People who want to build this capacity seriously, and who might eventually want to build something together. Not necessarily people who want to live here – the current property probably isn’t the long-term site. Happy to hear from anyone this resonates with, including people already in community who’d rather share what they’ve learned than join anything.
Offer
  • Communities with Openings
1 day ago

Unit C-2, Woodard Lane Cohousing — Olympia, WA

We are looking for renters and buyers who truly want to participate fully in a community living situation; to collaborate, share meals, attend meetings, share stewardship of our grounds and buildings, socialize, and share spaces including the Common House, guest rooms, tools, Center Green, vegetable garden, and more. Unit C2 is available for rent or for sale. Unit C2 Unit C2 has functioned as two units since its beginning. The lower level is currently occupied. It’s ideal if you desire ground floor ease of entry — as owner, you can live comfortably in half and rent out half. C2 For Rent (ground level) — $1,900/month Short term rental agreement with 90-day notice; includes utilities. Contact Kate Greene: yo******@***il.com or 360-789-7587 925 square feet One bedroom One bathroom Bonus room/office with loft bed Open kitchen, dining room, living room Deck view of forest Front yard garden C2 For Sale (entire unit) — $630,000 Contact Kate Greene: yo******@***il.com or 360-789-7587 1,904 square feet total (each level is 952 SF with a full kitchen and private entrance) 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a laundry room Ground floor entry with no steps Two back decks that face a wooded ravine The upstairs living space is an open kitchen, dining room, and living room The lower level has a full kitchen, two bedrooms, and a separate entry Upstairs has a large bedroom with closets, and a bonus room with a full-sized loft bed Monthly dues are currently $799.00, including all utilities (electricity, gas, water, sewer, garbage) plus a healthy contribution to the reserves fund See flyer for more details
Need

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