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City of Cleveland Promotes Cohousing

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

City officials in Cleveland, Ohio hosted a workshop with cohousing architect Chuck Durrett to explore the possibility of cohousing in Cleveland. This is a great step for the aging industrial city that is also the home of a burgeoning ecovillage project. Most cohousing is initiated by future residents or more recently by professional cohousing developers, but this is the first I've heard of a major city working to promote cohousing and help coalesce a forming group. They even have economic incentives in place that could help a group get started.

Cleveland officials and Cleveland State University are hosting a workshop today about the cooperative lifestyle in hopes cohousing will be part of the city's future.

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The idea for today's seminar began with Cleveland city planner Kim Scott, who first heard about cohousing eight years ago. The idea sounded appealing, especially as the divorced mother of six struggled to juggle commitments and relocate her aging mother.

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The city already offers some incentives, including 15-year tax abatement and $1 vacant lots for new homes that might attract groups interested in cohousing. Federal grants also are available for green and affordable communities.

Read the article on Cohousing in Cleveland

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Tags: Chuck Durrett, Cleveland, cohousing, Ohio
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Written by: Tony Sirna

Ecovillage Helps Cleveland Become an Eco-city

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

The environmental news site, Grist, has a great article about how Cleveland is going green. The article highlights the Cleveland Ecovillage a "pedestrian-friendly neighborhood linked to mass transit".

The project is the brainchild of five local nonprofits, the city, the regional transit authority, private developers, and neighborhood residents. They aim to bring residents back to the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood, and to serve as an example to other cities of how to redevelop the inner city in a green fashion.

Near the newly renovated West 65th Street rapid transit station, Cuyahoga Community Land Trust is in the process of building five two- and three-bedroom homes, between 1,226 and 1,350 square feet each, called the Green Cottages. They're designed to be LEED-certified and models of energy efficiency, with projected heating costs of just $36 a month thanks to energy-saving appliances and heavy insulation.

Because mixed-income housing is a key to sustainability, EcoVillage designers wanted to coax both lower- and upper-middle-class residents to return to the inner city. The cottages are surrounded by Craftsman-era homes, many of them carefully restored, painted the colors of Easter eggs and with wide front porches. Down the street, within walking distance to the rapid-transit station that links to downtown, are 20 1,600-square-foot EcoVillage townhouses constructed by GreenBuilt Homes, an eco-friendly Cleveland builder.

"We had a few folks who moved in from the suburbs, some who moved from within the local neighborhood, and some that came from other cities and other states," said Metcalf. At this point, the people behind EcoVillage feel pretty safe claiming the project a success.

The article goes on to describe a number of other ecological projects in and around Cleveland.