Colorful cohousing homes in a green community setting under a blue sky.

White Pine Cohousing Community

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Home-sharing
  • Rural

Founding year

  • 2007

What we do

White Pine Cohousing is a six unit community on 41 acres of meadow and forest land located in rural central Vermont, just outside of Montpelier. The houses are clustered on the south side of the seven acre meadow to enhance solar exposure and maintain the open fields for gardens, wildlife and activities. We aim to create and maintain a residential community that both respects individual needs and expects member participation in managing the social and physical requirements of the community. We have village-like informal connections and use a consensus decision-making process. Our individually owned homes were built with environmentally sound construction, are super insulated, share a common heating system and have small ecological footprints.

Our Mission

The Community will create and maintain a residential community that both respects individual needs and expects member participation in managing the social and physical requirements of the community.

  • Purpose
  • Home-sharing
  • Community type
  • Cohousing
  • Sustainability practices
  • Renewable energy systems

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2007
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2009
  • Started living together
  • 11 Total members
  • Not open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
15

How to join

Thank you so much for expressing interest in the home available in our cohousing community! Before we take further steps in the process, we wanted to be sure to say a little bit about what is involved in being part of White Pine Cohousing, so you can determine whether or not this might be a good fit for you. Living here means that you will have wonderful, mutually supportive neighbors (if we do say so ourselves!), but also means that you will have agreed to certain processes and obligations which are unlike just buying a house in a regular neighborhood. These processes, guidelines and obligations are included in our Resident Handbook, By-laws and Declaration which you will receive if you continue with our new member process. They include:
Any potential new resident will go through our new member process, which will include filling out a questionnaire and meeting with the other residents/members of White Pine Cohousing.
As part of the new member process you will need to provide credible documentation of your financial ability to purchase the house and live in the community.
Basic community expectations:
We have monthly meetings where issues related to our common lives and property are discussed and decided on.
We use a consensus (minus 1) decision-making process.
We also have shared meals together two times a month, where attendance is encouraged.
During warmer weather we have monthly 3 or 4-hour work parties where we do grounds maintenance and other, usually outdoor, projects.
There is a yearly fee, similar to a condominium fee, which pays for shared infrastructure expenses such as plowing, heating system expenses, and road, grounds and septic maintenance. Additionally, we currently have a wood pellet boiler which provides baseline heat to all of the houses. You will be assessed a portion of the wood pellet bill according to your usage, in addition to a share of heat for the barn (our common building) .
If you feel our community may be a good fit for you, and you might be a good fit for our community and would like to proceed, we would love to meet you!

Basic expectations or agreements for members

To visit our community contact the following residents by text or email:
Paul Kramer
503-706-0242
pm******@***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.

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: Yes
Labor: Yes
informal work days and tasks
contribute semi annually to community expenses

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

Common House, Garden(s), Workshop, Fire pit, Swingsets & play areas

Frequency of communal meals

  • About once a week

Dietary restriction

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

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

  • Super-insulated to reduce energy usage

Sustainability approach

  • Renewable energy systems

Community type

  • Super-insulated to reduce energy usage

Some or all of the buildings are...

  • Super-insulated to reduce energy usage

Self-produced energy

  • Over 66%

Energy sources used

  • Photovoltaic Solar
  • Biomass (from wood or other organic materials)

Self-produced food

  • Up to 33%

Food systems

  • Community garden
  • Land area size
    41 acres

Guest Book

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Location

  • Vermont, United States

White Pine Cohousing Community

Needs and Offers

Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace

  • Promoted
Offer
  • Promoted
  • Events
4 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
Need
  • Forming Communities
3 weeks ago

Forest Community Starting

Description: Willits, CA, Pacific Northwest rainforest system. Forest Haven is seeking forest lovers who value solitude. We have several areas in the main compound and a few tucked away in private. Space is designed for your RV / Tiny Home / +++. We will add power and water for each new Steward’s space. Land: 40 acres(17 hectares), 3ac for humans. Year-round creek at base of parcel. Heavy trees, 40 meter-ish high. Conifer mix. With a large south-facing common garden.   New forest stewards have agreed to prioritize tree health. This means each person here will have a say in whether we cut any single tree. We never cut for wood or sale.  Stewards agree to walk the forest daily as our one required 20-minute group activity.    Limit the number of dwellings to 3-5 Total. There are 8 common buildings, with 3 having flush toilets and one with a hot shower, washer and dryer. We are 100% off-grid.  We have a natural spring and solar. The full-size common kitchen is large enough to process the garden harvest and more. Remote workers and retirees’ welcome. Full online and cell service available.    Forest Haven is currently a private forest reserve.   If 2 households sign on, it will become a 501(c)(3). Each person’s “donation/rent” will be tax-deductible. This is a private forest reserve going public as a nonprofit.    Please inquire if you want to help in a small way using basic permaculture methods to improve our forest’s health, message me to learn more.
Offer

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