Family harvesting pumpkins in a community farm with lush greenery in the background.

Belfast Cohousing & Ecovillage

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Ecological
  • Town/Small City

Founding year

  • 2007

What we do

Belfast is a city of 7,000 people located in midcoast Maine between Camden and Bar Harbor. The city features an active waterfront and lively arts community and is the center of business, services, and government for the surrounding county. Traditional housing in the Belfast area falls into two main categories: in-town residential neighborhoods and rural, large-lot homesteads. Belfast Cohousing & Ecovillage is a community that combines the best elements of both types: located in a rural area with clustered housing and shared infrastructure, but working to preserve neighboring open land for wildlife, recreation, and farming, while fostering a close-knit, cooperative, and intentionally ecological way of life.
We are a group of roughly 70 people from many walks of life. We are business owners, educators, naturalists, gardeners, builders, farmers, health care providers, writers, musicians, and children. Our 42-acre community is located just two miles from Belfast’s downtown and harbor. We are within 1.5 miles of elementary, middle, and high schools, a YMCA, and grocery and retail stores.
All of our homes are highly energy-efficient, with triple-pane windows and doors, lots of insulation, and are oriented toward the sun. Two-thirds of the homes have solar systems, making them near net-zero for energy consumption. Personal garden plots are available, and we have a community orchard and high tunnel for winter greens. We also have a 3-acre worker share CSA farm on our property that is currently dormant, where neighbors have gathered to harvest veggies and maintain the land.
Our 4,000 sq ft common house has a living room, dining room, playroom, guest rooms, and root cellar. We enjoy weekly events including music, educational seminars, movies, games, potlucks and social gatherings.
Please visit our website for more information on visiting us or to learn more about the available homes. All the units are either owner-occupied or rented directly by the owner.

Our Mission

The mission of Belfast Cohousing & Ecovillage is to be a model environmentally sustainable, affordable, multi-generational cohousing community that is easily accessible to Belfast, includes land reserved for agricultural use and open space, and is an innovative housing option for rural Maine.

  • Purpose
  • Ecological
  • Community type
  • Cohousing
  • Ecovillage
  • Sustainability practices
  • Renewable energy systems

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2007
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2012
  • Started living together

Video

  • 53 Total members
  • Not open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
67

Basic expectations or agreements for members

Please contact Mary at in**@************ng.org.

Primary decision-making authority

  • Small Leadership Group

A few people (not elected by the broader community) make the major decisions.

Decision-making process

  • Consent-Based (Sociocracy)

Decisions proceed unless someone has a reasoned objection.

Governance structure

  • Sociocratic/Circle-Based

Organized in circles or domains with distributed authority.

Economic model

  • Independent Finances

Members maintain separate personal finances with minimal sharing.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • There is a one-time fee, investment, or share purchase to join the community separate from accessing housing
  • 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

Join fee: Yes
Regular fees: $200
Labor: Yes
Members with pre-existing debt: allowed

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

Common House, Garden(s), Greenhouse(s), Outbuilding(s), Large Scale Kitchen, Tractor & Farm Equipment, Fire pit, Swingsets & play areas, Internet

Frequency of communal meals

  • 2-5 times per week

Substance use culture

  • Substance use appears in public spaces but no pressure
  • Religions
  • Christian
  • Buddhist
  • Jewish
  • Unitarian Universalist

Gender composition

  • Roughly balanced (no group 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

  • Town/Small City

Smaller municipalities with local services but rural character.

Community type

  • Cohousing

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

  • Ecovillage

    Integrated communities designed around ecological principles with sustainable living practices.

Community type

  • Built or remodeled using passive solar design

Sustainability approach

  • Renewable energy systems

Community type

  • Built or remodeled using passive solar design

Some or all of the buildings are...

  • Built or remodeled using passive solar design

Self-produced energy

  • 33 - 66%

Energy sources used

  • Photovoltaic Solar

Self-produced food

  • Up to 33%

Local, organic, or fair trade food

  • Up to 33%

Food systems

  • Community garden
  • Greenhouse / aquaponics
  • Land area size
    42 acres

Guest Book

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

Location

  • Maine, United States

Belfast Cohousing & Ecovillage

Needs and Offers

Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace

Need
  • Forming Communities
3 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
  • Real Estate For Sale
4 weeks ago

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

Join Olympia’s first and longest-running cohousing community, in a quiet West Side neighborhood 1.6 miles from downtown, backing onto a forested ravine along Schneider Creek. Unit C-2 offers 1,904 SF. Two stories, 4 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, and a bonus loft room on the main level. It can be lived in as one spacious family home — or split into two independent living spaces, each with its own kitchen, entrance, and effective soundproofing. Great for multigenerational households, live/work arrangements, or an owner-occupied half with a rented or shared half. Upper level: bedroom, full bath, bonus room with built-in loft bed, and an open kitchen-dining-living area with a deck facing the forest. Lower level: 3 bedrooms, full bath with dual sinks, second full kitchen, laundry room, and a second patio. Features: 2 full kitchens, radiant floor heat, stained concrete floors (bamboo upstairs), double-pane windows, bolted keyed entries at both levels, dedicated laundry, concrete patios facing the ravine, shared parking with 18 EV charging stations.   Ownership includes a Common House with a guest room, full kitchen, gathering space, and kids’ play area; a shared vegetable garden; a wood shop and bike storage; and wooded grounds with a stream path and central Green. Monthly dues are $799, covering all utilities except internet. Established in 2010, Woodard Lane is home to ~40 residents across 18 homes, with shared meals, work parties, and genuine neighborliness. Learn more about Woodard Lane Cohousing  We’re looking for a buyer who wants to participate fully in community life. $630,000. Contact Kate Greene: yo******@***il.com or text: 360-789-7587.
Offer
Need

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