Bull City Commons cohousing logo with green background and community symbols.

Bull City Commons

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Home-sharing
  • Urban

Founding year

  • 2017

What we do

Bull City Commons is a diverse urban cohousing community guided by kindness, respect, and mutual support. Together we are creating an oasis of individual and community well-being. Our 5-story cohousing condominium community in central Durham, NC, is within walking distance of a vital shopping district, a university campus and hospital, and public transit. Our indoor spaces are designed to be open and airy, blending with our woods-and-gardens environment, with indoor and outdoor spaces that support privacy, group activities, and neighborhood interaction. At Bull City Commons, we can truly be ourselves in this diverse and welcoming mid-sized city full of history, culture, and charming neighborhoods.

Our Mission

Our community supports:
· Private homes as well as shared spaces
· Sharing resources, limiting each household’s need to own everything
· Caring for one another with kindness, ease, and intention rather than obligation
· Health and well-being, joy, playfulness, and relaxation
· Connection to each other, our neighborhood, and the larger community

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

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2017
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2022
  • Started living together

Video

  • 29 Total members
  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
31

How to join

We want prospective members to make an informed decision about joining BCC’s vision of community. For information, please visit www.bullcitycommons.com.

Basic expectations or agreements for members

We welcome prospective members to visit our website, attend an online information session, come for a tour, and share a meal during our monthly plenary business meetings. We also have a weekly social hour–open to all curious.
You can download an information sheet and learn more about BCC at https://www.bullcitycommons.com/
Contact us at bu*************@***il.com if you have questions.

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.

Conflict resolution approach

We follow Sociocracy principles and use a consent process (ie, no objections) for decision making. All unit owners are board members of the COA with rights and responsibilities.

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
All owner-residents participate in our plenary business meetings and several operational circles and teams.

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

Common House, Garden(s), Workshop, Outbuilding(s), Fire pit, Internet

Frequency of communal meals

  • About once a week

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

Gender composition

  • Majority cis (over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Mixed adults (few or no children)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

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

Setting

  • Urban

Within city limits with access to urban amenities and infrastructure.

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

  • 33 - 66%

Food systems

  • Community garden
  • Land area size
    0.5 acres

Guest Book

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

Location

  • North Carolina, United States

Bull City Commons

Needs and Offers

Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace

  • Promoted
Offer
  • Promoted
  • Events
2 weeks ago

Healing Love Healing Money: Trust As The Foundation For A New Culture

Money, love and power are among the hardest things any community works with, and many of us carry the same fears into both: not having enough, losing what we have, and the sense that if someone else gets money or love, we won’t. Healing Love, Healing Money: Trust as the Foundation for a New Culture is taught by two intentional communities. Karen McAllister and Duncan Cryle are from Clear Sky Meditation and Retreat Center, a Buddhist-lineage community in the BC Rockies. Monika Alleweldt and Benjamin von Mendelssohn from Tamera Healing Biotope, a community of about 160 people in southern Portugal that has spent decades studying love, trust and relationship. Clear Sky has spent years working on its relationship with money, and our two communities found surprising parallels in the fears beneath both. Over four sessions we explore the roots of fear around money and belonging, love, possession and power, trust as infrastructure (community as a container for healing), and ethical livelihood. We use short meditations, body-based practices, reflection and small-group conversation. You do not need to be in a romantic relationship or live in community. When: October 27, Nov 3, 10, 17. All four sessions: 12–2pm Vancouver, 1–3pm Alberta, 7–9pm UK and Portugal, 8–10pm Central Europe. Note: US and some Canadian provinces change clocks on November 1, so the US west coast is 12–2pm on October 27, then 11am–1pm for the remaining sessions, and Eastern is 3–5pm on October 27, then 2–4pm for the rest. Cost: sliding scale Details and registration: https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/healing-love-healing-money-online/  
October 27, 2026 13:00 – November 17, 2026 15:00
  • Promoted
Need
Offer
  • Real Estate For Sale
4 days ago

Breathe the Magic

Set in Sea Elephant, Tasmania, within a remarkable conservation landscape, this contemporary home offers genuine privacy with the assurance that the surrounding native environment is protected for the future.  With its cool King Island climate and abundant rain and water supply, your lifetyle is secure in a climate future that is becoming unsettling. Experience the unique community lifestyle that only King Island can offer.  Sleep with the peace of knowing you live in a place where everyone looks out for everyone else, and someone will always have your back. 1675 Reekara Road offers slightly more than 51 hectares of protected King Island wilderness, of which approximately 48.84 hectares are protected under a conservation covenant encompassing King Island scrub, blue gum forest, remarkable wildlife. The property is surrounded by the Lavinia State Reserve and Council Hill Conservation Area. A 2 hectare residential entitlement provides ample space for planting vegetables, fruit trees,  keeping chickens, or creating other sustainable living infrastructure.  Already included are: – A well-maintained house built in 2023 with upstairs en-suite bedroom and deck with gorgeous views, including forest/ocean outlook. – A spacious downstairs bathroom provides options for guest accommodation – Just include a sleeper couch or 2 in the ample living area. – A large pristine kitchen, including pantry and laundry. – Small wood shed – Large shed or double garage built in 2024 – Enclosed garden – 40,000 litre water storage tank – large dam An existing approved DA means you have the option of further development.  Buy the property furnighed, unfurnished, or with a 2015 Jeep Wrangler thrown in.

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