Community building at Foundation for Intentional Community in Sand River Cohousing.

Sand River Cohousing

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Home-sharing
  • Town/Small City

Founding year

  • 2005

What we do

Sand River is a participatory community of active elders. We are grounded in the principles of conscious aging, decision making by modified consensus with supermajority voting, environmental stewardship, and a connection to Place. Our community’s LEED-certified design features energy-efficient homes and common house as well as a permaculture landscape and permeable paths. Our 2400-square-foot solar-powered common house includes a large kitchen, dining-and-meeting area, sitting-and-media area with fireplace, as well as a library, office, guest room, and laundry. There are three EV-plugin charging stations, with two currently in use, as well as a community tool shed.
Our northern New Mexico location affords mountain hiking as well as nearby walking–cycling trails—with the Arroyo Chamiso Urban Trail just across the community’s adjoining arroyo. Santa Fe offers an abundance of restaurants, galleries, libraries, grocery stores, medical services, gyms, and low-cost public transportation.
As an elder community, we want to be good neighbors by supporting one another socially and logistically. However, we are not an assisted living or nursing facility. Each member is responsible for themselves.
We welcome active elders who seek a cooperative life style and are willing share in the work and play called for to be a vibrant, safe, and happy community.
While our homes and the common house are ADA-certified, the gravel road surrounding the common house does not offer easy accessibility for wheel chairs.
Sand River, as a LEED* community, benefits from the following sustainable design features: universal design, permeable paths and trails, accessible public transportation, community open space, water-saving features, rainwater harvesting, native plants and trees, passive solar orientation, in-floor radiant heat, healthy indoor air quality, Energy-Star qualified, 30% more energy efficient than non-LEED construction, low-E windows, blown-in cellulose insulation, and photovoltaic-ready hookups.
*LEED-certified buildings save money and resources, and have a positive impact on the health of occupants, while promoting renewable, clean energy.
Please check our website for COVID-related updates. https://www.sandriver.org/faqs.html

Our Mission

We are an active 55+ cohousing community with emphasis on conscious aging, sustainability, and decision making by modified consensus and supermajority voting.

  • Purpose
  • Home-sharing
  • Community type
  • Cohousing
  • Sustainability practices
  • Renewable energy systems
  • Water conservation and management
  • Permaculture design
  • Activities
  • Property management

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2005
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2009
  • Started living together

Video

Gallery

  • 35 Total members
  • Not open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
37

How to join

Units are periodically available for purchase by residents who move and very occasionally for rent. Please check the For Sale page of our website http://www.sandriver.org/for-sale.html for current availability.

Basic expectations or agreements for members

Please contact us in advance at http://www.sandriver.org/contact.html. We currently are offering tours to prospective residents only, when there are active home listings. Meal availability depends on current Covid conditions.

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 point people for our various work teams which are staffed on a volunteer basis by residents and a COA (condominium owners’ association) board that fulfills the legal obligations of the community as an COA. The board is responsible for fiscal and legal matters. A monthly community meeting is facilitated by rotation.
We use a modified consensus with supermajority voting. Our COA board subsequently votes in line with community decisions as a final step in order to meet the legal requirements of having been organized as an COA.

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: $500
Regular fees: $230
Labor: Yes (2 hrs/week)
Members with pre-existing debt: allowed
We have independent finances, own our homes, and pay COA dues, so an individual’s debt does not directly impact the community or other members.
Residents participate in the activities and life of our “extended family,” and contribute by joining work teams and/or serving on the board.
Ownership of a residence constitutes membership.
Residents pay COA monthly dues.

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

Common House, Garden(s), Library, Workshop, Large Scale Kitchen, Internet

Frequency of communal meals

  • 1-3 times per month

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
  • Quaker
  • Unitarian Universalist

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

  • 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.

Community type

  • Built or remodeled using passive solar design

Sustainability approach

  • Renewable energy systems
  • Water conservation and management
  • Permaculture design

Land practices in our community

  • The community practices permaculture
  • The community is working to remove invasive plants and grow only indigenous plants

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

Source of water

  • Rainwater capture and storage for use (barrels, cisterns, etc.)
  • Land area size
    3.5 acres

Guest Book

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

Location

  • New Mexico, United States

Sand River Cohousing

Needs and Offers

Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace

  • Promoted
Need
  • Promoted
  • Events
1 week 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
  • 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
  • Communities with Openings
4 weeks ago

Build Your Future in Rural Portugal — Business Partnerships & Sustainable Living

Mellow Cogumelo is seeking 2–4 motivated individuals or couples interested in helping develop two food businesses and a small, cooperative rural community on 30 hectares of off-grid land in southwest Portugal.We’re looking for long-term partners, not short-term volunteers or visitors interested only in learning mushroom cultivation. This is an opportunity to help shape a project with substantial facilities and equipment already in place. TWO BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES Artisan Neapolitan PizzaOur mobile pizza operation includes an equipped professional kitchen, pizza trailer, and wood-fired oven. We’re particularly interested in someone with pizza-making experience who would enjoy developing and eventually managing this business.Specialty Gourmet MushroomsOur mushroom facility includes a dedicated laboratory, production equipment, and controlled growing environments. Mushroom cultivation or farming experience is welcome, but initiative, practical skills, attention to detail, and a willingness to learn are just as valuable. MORE THAN A BUSINESS Our wider vision is a small rural community built on independence, cooperation, mutual respect, and care for the land.Future projects include vegetable gardens, orchards, regenerative agriculture, and further improvements to our off-grid infrastructure.This is rural living, with its rewards and challenges. The property is reached by approximately 2 km of dirt road. We generate our own electricity and manage our water systems.We maintain a non-smoking, drug-free environment. Reliable transportation, or a realistic plan for it, is important. HOW IT COULD WORK We hope to meet people who want to create lasting livelihoods by gradually taking greater responsibility for developing and operating the businesses.We envision operating partnerships with increasing profit participation, based on mutually agreed responsibilities, milestones, and business performance.These are developing commercial opportunities; immediate income cannot be guaranteed. Financial and working arrangements would be discussed individually and established through appropriate agreements.On-site accommodation may be possible as part of an agreed arrangement. WHO WE HOPE TO MEET Practical, dependable, independent-minded people who like hands-on work and want to contribute to something for the long term.Experience in food service, cultivation, agriculture, construction, mechanics, or business development is welcome. Shared values and commitment are most important.If this speaks to you, please tell us about your background, skills, and what you’re hoping to build over the next few years.Learn more on our Join Our Team page at mellowcogumelo.com.
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