Aerial view of a residential community with colorful houses and green spaces.

Frog Song

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Home-sharing
  • Urban

Founding year

  • 1998

What we do

Our community is a part of downtown Cotati, California (population 6,700). We are a typical cohousing community in that we are not organized around any particular religious, economic, political, or lifestyle focus, other than our intention to create a neighborhood that by its physical design and social structure facilitates community.
Our community houses 30 families (including singles, couples with and without children, and single parents) in townhouse-style attached homes. Our common house includes a kitchen, dining room, guest rooms, children’s room, and a workshop.
We’re a little different from many cohousing communities in that we were required by the city of Cotati to include 6700 square feet of retail space as part of our development. We decided to keep ownership of this retail space as a community. We now live next door to a handful of small businesses, which are locally owned.
Community dinners and workdays are a part of our lives. Our key policy decisions are made by consensus, and we meet once monthly for two-hour business and community-development meetings.
Our group formed out of the old Acacia Cohousing Group in Santa Rosa, California, a group which started meeting in November of 1994. The current group came together in the late summer/early fall of 1998, and in January 2000 we found a 2.3 acre parcel of land in downtown Cotati. With the help of the Cohousing Company (Nevada City, California), and our developer, Wonderland Hill (Boulder, Colorado), construction was completed and residents began moving into their new homes in 2003.

Our Mission

Cohousing Community

  • Purpose
  • Home-sharing
  • Community type
  • Cohousing

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 1998
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2003
  • Started living together

Gallery

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

How to join

Open when homes come up for sale or rent.

Basic expectations or agreements for members

Please contact us through our email (listed on our website) to arrange a visit or tour. We cannot accommodate “Drop-in” visitors, so please visit only after you’ve made arrangements with us.

Primary decision-making authority

  • All Community Members Together

The whole membership decides collectively.

Decision-making process

  • Full Consensus

Everyone must agree before moving forward.

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

  • 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 (3 hrs/week)
Members with pre-existing debt: allowed
Each household qualifies for their mortgage independent from the rest of the community.
Members are required to help cook at least once a month, participate in work days, and serve on at least one committee.
Homeowner’s Association dues vary by size of home (sizes range from 2 bedrooms/1 bathroom to four bedrooms/3 bathrooms).

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

Common House, Garden(s), Library, Workshop, Hot tub or hot springs, Large Scale Kitchen, Swingsets & play areas, Internet

Frequency of communal meals

  • 2-5 times per week

Significant food acquisition practices

  • Locally sourced

Substance use culture

  • Substance use appears in public spaces but no pressure
  • Substance use occurs primarily at celebrations or ceremonies
  • Religions
  • Buddhist
  • Jewish
  • Wiccan, Paganism, or Earth Religions
  • 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 single individual, couple, or Family Trust

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
    2.3 acres

Guest Book

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Location

  • California, United States

Needs and Offers

Offer
Offer
  • Marketplace
6 years ago

Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves Books for Sale

Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves, Charles Durrett and Kathryn McCamant introduce Cohousing with stories and pictures of both Danish and American communities. Beautiful photographs and line drawings illustrate the warmly written account of how these communities came to be. Specific information on legal and financial aspects of working with developers, group process, and design issues make this book informative as well as inspiring. This is the book which brought Cohousing to North America. This book is the much prized second edition which has become a rarer and somewhat of a collectors item. Its community case studies were not included in the more recent publication. It preceded Creating Cohousing which is widely available. I acquired 25 cases from a local distributor who closed down. If you would like three or more copies for yourself, to share with your friends or to market your group, please let me know. I would love for them to be made useful and find great homes. Books are paperback (hard copy was not an option at the time from the publisher) all brand new, in Oakland (CA) so could be picked in Oakland or mailed to you. I would very much like to recuperate what I paid which is $10 per book. So, If you would like three or more shipped, I will add the postage, packing and handling fees. I have sold several cases (18 books per case) for $150 per case ($8 per book). I have a little wiggle room on the pricing. Please let me know if you are interested. Use the Send Message button on this page.

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