Group of diverse people enjoying outdoor meal at New Brighton Cohousing.

New Brighton Cohousing

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Home-sharing
  • Suburban

Founding year

  • 2001

What we do

New Brighton Cohousing is an owner-occupied townhouse community, located at 6010-6034 Soquel Drive in Aptos, California, less than one mile from the beach. It was was established in the fall of 2007 when we purchased a townhouse complex.
Currently we are a community of 17 adult members, 5 children, 3 cats and 2 dogs. About half the community works or has worked in social services and the other half in education, the sciences, healthcare, and planning. Our ages range from 2 months to 81. We enjoy each other’s company and share a common interest in living responsibly.
The property consists of 11 individually owned 2-story townhomes in 3 buildings, and one 1600-square-foot common house, all situated around a central courtyard. Our common house has a kitchen, indoor and outdoor dining areas, a children’s room, and two guest rooms.
Community amenities include two group meals per week, two guest rooms, dining and meeting spaces, indoor and outdoor children’s play areas, and a small community garden and orchard.
Our community is designed, owned, and managed by the residents. Membership requires participation in meal preparation once a month, active participation on a committee and an affinity group as well as participation in quarterly community-wide work parties. As much as possible, we do the maintenance and upkeep of the property ourselves.

Our Mission

We are interested in living sustainably as a community with teams to manage the organization and maintain the property. We manage our community together and we also have strong social connections.

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

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2001
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2007
  • Started living together

Gallery

  • 16 Total members
  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
25

How to join

Prospective members are asked to attend a business, a committee or affinity group meetings, attend a community dinner and/or perhaps participate in a work party. We want to make sure there is a good fit and that the buyer understands what it means to live in cohousing.

Basic expectations or agreements for members

For more information or to arrange a visit, please send an email to Ka**********@***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.

Conflict resolution approach

We have a plenary meeting on the second Sunday of every month. We alternate business meetings with community building 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: Yes
Labor: Yes
Members with pre-existing debt: allowed
With another person, each member pays for and prepares a dinner for the community once a month. All levels of cooking are accepted.

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

Common House, Garden(s), Swingsets & play areas

Frequency of communal meals

  • About once a week

Dietary type

  • Vegetarian Only

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
  • Religions
  • Christian
  • Buddhist
  • Jewish
  • Quaker
  • Wiccan, Paganism, or Earth Religions
  • Unitarian Universalist

Gender composition

  • Majority cis (over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Family-focused (many children and parents)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

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

Setting

  • Suburban

Residential areas outside city centers but within metropolitan regions.

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

  • Over 66%

Food systems

  • Community garden
  • Land area size
    0.9 acres

Needs & Offers

Offer
  • Real Estate For Sale
3 weeks ago

Cohousing Townhome near the beach in Aptos, CA

6026 Soquel Drive, Aptos, CA. A 2 bedroom, 2 bath 1100 square foot townhouse in the New Brighton Cohousing Community. The townhouse is two stories with a full bathroom on each floor and both bedrooms upstairs. The townhouse for sale is a beautiful end unit with a lot of natural light and a large private backyard. Located directly across from the common house and next to the play area, you can enjoy morning coffee on the private balcony overlooking the courtyard. New Brighton Cohousing is a small 11 unit cohousing community, an easy walk to New Brighton State Beach.The central location of this community provides easy access to Highway 1 as well as close proximity to Cabrillo College and local amenities. Cohousing Values and Participation: We formed a multigenerational community, with like-minded owners who participate in governance and events that foster community and a sense of belonging. We have a community organic garden, courtyard, and play area for kids. Our common house has a deck overlooking the courtyard where we have meals, weather permitting, otherwise eating in the community dining room. Our common house has two guest bedrooms, two bathrooms, a dining room/kitchen, living room/den, and kid’s playroom. We have a garage for bicycles and shared tools. Our community is designed, owned and managed by the community. We rehabilitated our buildings and designed our community at our inception in 2007, but continue to evolve. We meet every other month for a business meeting where we make decisions about policies, repairs, budgets, etc. On the alternate months, we meet for community connection meetings where we learn and develop skills for communication, conflict resolution, values discussions, or just have fun together. Everyone works on a committee (finance, maintenance or facilitation) and these committees work for the community. We also belong to an “affinity group” – garden, landscape or common house. Usually we each work about an hour per wee

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Location

  • California, United States

Needs and Offers

Offer
  • Communities with Openings
7 months ago

Worktrade Opportunities on Big Island Hawaii

We are continuing our work-trade program at Bridge Hawaii for the right people on this beautiful 86-acre land located along the Hāmākua Coast. Ideally, we want to host those individuals who can help with the garden and who can support with build projects for up to a 3 month stay. This work-trade would include lodging, food staples, community kitchen, running hot water showers, off-grid electricity, and laundry. There is access to high speed wi-fi. We often have a car that can be reserved. We also have full bar signal strength with Verizon cellphone service. We have about 2 acres of permaculture garden that needs to be cared for including; weeding, planting, picking up mulch, some tree trimming, ect. We are currently in a building stage on the land. We have a few current grant projects we are working on and some build projects that are underway. We are an intentional community with about 8 permanent residents. There are rescue dairy cows, mini cows, mini donkeys, horses, a donkey, cats, dogs, and active bee hives. We are a drug and alcohol “free” space. A glass of wine or beer with dinner is fine, but absolutely no day drinking or parties. We have a meditation temple and many waterfall pools that are wonderful for swimming. Close to some of the nicest beaches on island. We have snorkeling gear and a kayak. Since this is an animal sanctuary, we limit the consumption of meat on the land. Fish, eggs, honey, and dairy are fine. Let me know if you’re interested by sending an email or text for our application. Maomi (801) 623-0738 ma***@*****************ii.com
Need
  • Communities with Openings
3 years ago

Twin Oaks, an established, income-sharing, village-scale community is seeking new members

Twin Oaks is looking for new members! Founded in 1967, Twin Oaks is an egalitarian, income-sharing community made currently 70 adults and 15 kids, living on 500 forested acres in central Virginia. Twin Oaks has strong social justice values including feminism, racial justice, and queer culture. We host a Queer Gathering and Women’s Gathering each summer, and we have a number of working groups around racial justice issues in general and in an intentional community context. Please visit our website twinoaks.org for more information and directions on how to apply for a Visitor Period. A Visitor Period is the first step towards becoming a member. We can offer: your choice of full-time work in our income-sharing community businesses (heirloom seeds, hammocks, and others) and/or domestic work areas from organic gardening to milking cows and cheese-making to office work to technical jobs and more! an individual room in shared housing; each member has their own personal bedroom and shares a kitchen, living room and bathroom with others in their house. Each residence has its own culture and range of ages. all meals are provided in our communal dining hall and/or in smaller kitchens for individual eating. We generally accommodate all special diets. (gluten-free, vegan, no garlic, etc.) income-sharing includes health-care and monthly stipend for extra We are looking for: people with various life skills and/or a willingness to learn people who share our values of social justice, sustainability and living closely with a diversity of people people with a generally responsible and pro-active approach to community living experience or interest in non-hierarchical, shared decision-making BIPOC, women and non-binary people especially encouraged The first step towards becoming a member is to participate in one of
Offer
  • Forming Communities
1 month ago

Join us in Our Adventure of Co-Creating a Life of Peace, Love, and Abundance Together!

LOOKING FOR OUR NEW FAMILY OF CO CREATORS TO JOIN OUR ADVENTURE! Message us to schedule a visit! More about us and our vision below! Read on and we look forward to hearing from you soon if you feel in alignment with our vision! A forming and co-created spiritually-oriented intentional community and homestead nestled in the beautiful woods of Northern Michigan. We are focused on self-awareness, free and open spiritual/consciousness development, sustainable living, self sufficiency, growing organic food, building small energy efficient homes/dwellings, peace, and freedom in all things. We are looking to build a community of like minded souls that share in our vision of creating a harmonious and sustainable way of life that is close to nature and focused on living from the heart/soul. Seeking kind, compassionate, caring, and emotionally mature souls who are good at non violent communication, resolving conflict peacefully, and working together. The community property is well on its way to sustainability already with a fruit orchard with over 18 apple trees and a variety of plum and pear trees. The property also has 2 very large organic gardens covering around 3 acres in total combined size filled with organic healthy vegetables for community self sufficiency, farm market selling, and food preserving (canning). We have plans to build a couple energy efficient green houses in the near future! We are also getting 30-40 chickens for egg production within the next month. Also considering a couple cows or goats for milk. We currently have 3 houses on the homestead property that are available to new community members for rent or work trade or a combination of both! The main community house has potentially 6 bedrooms available as well. We have plans to build multiple small/tiny homes and cabins in the beautiful woods here for members that are energy efficient and off grid with renewable clean energy/electricity and rainwater harvesting. We are working on a community in

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