Cozy house surrounded by lush greenery and trees in an intentional community setting.

Heartwood Cohousing

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Home-sharing
  • Rural

Founding year

  • 1994

What we do

Heartwood Cohousing is a close-knit, multigenerational community in Southwest Colorado near Durango, where neighbors support each other, share resources, and enjoy an active outdoor lifestyle. We’re not a commune — each home is individually owned, we have an HOA like any neighborhood, and residents pursue their own careers and life paths, united by a shared commitment to connection with each other and nature. Our population is typically 50-60 people: families with kids, singles, and couples of all ages, though the community is expanding! Established in 2000 with 24 homes, we’re now building Phase 2, which is made up of 14 new homes that will be move-in ready starting fall of 2026. Shared amenities in Heartwood include a common house, village green, kids’ play structure, woodworking shop, greenhouse, raised beds, henhouse, exercise room, library, guest rooms, tennis/pickleball and court, barns, a yurt, hot tub, sledding hill, and bonfire circle.

We are a rural community, 5 mins from Bayfield and 30 mins from Durango, and we own 360 acres, including 67 irrigated acres for horses, llamas, and cattle, plus 7 miles of trails. Homes are clustered on a few acres, leaving over 95% of our land as open space. All homes are passive solar and energy efficient. Our gardens and small farm are all organic. At 7,100′ elevation in the Four Corners region, we enjoy 300+ days of sunshine, dry mountain air (no AC needed), star-filled skies, and easy access to the San Juan Mountains and Colorado Plateau red rock country with Mesa Verde, Canyonlands, Arches, and more all within a few hours. High-speed internet (100+ Mbps) and a regional airport 25 minutes away make remote work easy.

Heartwood is a wonderful place to raise kids, put down roots, and build a healthier, more connected life. Visit our website to learn more, sign up for our newsletter, or join a Virtual Tour, to see if Heartwood could be the right fit for you.

Our Vision

Our Vision: To create and live in a community that fosters harmony with each other, the larger community, and Nature.

  • Purpose
  • Home-sharing
  • Community type
  • Cohousing
  • Sustainability practices
  • Renewable energy systems
  • Waste reduction / composting
  • Activities
  • Property management

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 1994
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2000
  • Started living together

Gallery

  • 55 Total members
  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
66

How to join

If you’re interested in Heartwood, we recommend attending a Virtual Tour. This is a great first step to meet members, hear more about life in cohousing, see available houses, and more. Please feel free to contact us at any time with questions!

Basic expectations or agreements for members

Our membership process is self-selecting, which is to say that after thoroughly familiarizing yourself with Heartwood, it is your choice whether to join the community. The process is detailed in our Prospective Member Checklist on our website.

Primary decision-making authority

  • Small Leadership Group

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

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

Our Steering team has primary responsibility for planning and oversight. Other teams have responsibility for various other community functions.
Although most decisions are delegated to teams, some decisions are made by the entire community, which are made by consensus in community meetings (about five community meetings per year). We generally make fewer than a dozen community decisions each year. The rest of our decisions are made by teams using consensus at their team 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: $350
Labor: Yes (2 hrs/week)
Members with pre-existing debt: allowed
We do expect everyone to actively participate and contribute their talents to the maintenance of the community, ideally in the ways that work best for them with an offering of at least eight hours of community work per month. Monthly dues for each home (approx $270 – $550 depending on number of people in home) contribute to the community’s annual budget which addresses common costs including common building maintenance, water/wastewater management, landscaping, roads, trash, etc.

Vehicle accessibility

  • Most / all people own their own vehicles

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

Common House, Garden(s), Greenhouse(s), Library, Workshop, Outbuilding(s), Hot tub or hot springs, Large Scale Kitchen, Tractor & Farm Equipment, Fire pit, Swingsets & play areas, Trails, Gym or sports area, Internet

Frequency of communal meals

  • 2-5 times per week

Significant food acquisition practices

  • Locally sourced

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 occurs primarily at celebrations or ceremonies
  • Religions
  • Christian
  • Buddhist
  • Jewish
  • Quaker
  • Native
  • Wiccan, Paganism, or Earth Religions
  • Unitarian Universalist

Gender composition

  • Roughly balanced (no group over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Multi-generational (all ages well represented)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

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

Setting

  • Rural

Countryside locations with significant distance from urban centers.

Community type

  • Cohousing

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

Community type

  • Built or remodeled using passive solar design

Sustainability approach

  • Renewable energy systems
  • Waste reduction / composting

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

  • Wind
  • Photovoltaic Solar

Self-produced food

  • Up to 33%

Local, organic, or fair trade food

  • Up to 33%

Food systems

  • Community garden
  • Greenhouse / aquaponics
  • Livestock / poultry

Source of water

  • Well water

Waste management practices

  • Composting
  • Recycling program
  • Land area size
    360 acres

Guest Book

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

Location

  • Colorado, United States

Heartwood Cohousing

Needs and Offers

Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace

  • Promoted
  • Events
5 days 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
Offer
  • Real Estate For Sale
4 weeks 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.
  • Promoted
Need
  • Promoted
Offer
  • Communities with Openings
4 months ago

Do you feel called to help co-create a small, newly forming eco-spiritual community?

Old structures are crumbling. New ways of living are calling. We are answering that call. Wild Grace is an eco-spiritual community located in the Sierra foothills 30 minutes from Grass Valley, California. We recently completed new homes for those who feel called to our vision. Currently there are four of us living on this sacred 80 acres of land although we are a hub for an expanded neighborhood community. Many join us weekly for potlucks, expressive dance, Qi Gong, monthly musical gatherings, and seasonal celebrations in our temple, as well as tending to our orchard. We are excited to welcome others to join us on the land who are dedicating their lives to spiritual growth and ready to live in a more focused and intimate heart-centered lifestyle. Might that be you or someone you know? The fundamentals are simple. Spirit. We listen personally and collectively together most mornings, usually starting with a musical offering, a prayer, or a short reading, followed by about 40 minutes of what we call “sacred silence.” Heart Circles. About once a week we gather to share and listen. We are informed by authentic and compassionate communication practices. Nature. The land itself—an 80-acre oasis of field and forest perched above the wild and scenic South Yuba River—calls for our stewardship in the gardens, orchard, greenhouses, and general care. In turn, nature feeds us abundantly, both literally and spiritually. Interbeing. We join with others to share inspiration and connection as we host monthly gatherings of song, story and prayer that draws from the larger community in addition to other events we share with our closer neighbors. As we attend to these fundamentals, Grace flows to and through us—often in “Wild” or unexpected ways. Grace catalyzes through us, but is not something we possess. Because we all are connected, we feel that Grace actively transforms n
Offer
Offer
  • Professional Services
3 weeks 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.

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