Learn More About Cohousing

Please explore the Community on the website and download the Info and Sales packet for even more information.

We don’t know yet; no floor plans have been designed. The best way to get a first-floor bedroom would be to pay the current deposit fee and participate in the floor plan design workshop.

The current design includes private yards with the townhouse units. There may also be a small, enclosed yard attached to one of the flats. There is a plan to have a large "dog run" area in the back of the property.

Many of us are gardeners. If you click on the Sales and Community Info Package link, on the Site Plan you will see that we are planning to have large community gardens. The common grounds are being designed by a landscape architect and will have lots of opportunities to plant and maintain annuals and perennials.

Back to that Site Plan, there is a large potting shed and storage space for garden tools. Part of the cohousing philosophy is that every homeowner does not need all of the tools we currently have in our garages. We will also have a large bike barn and each home will include a garage with storage space.

This is certainly a possibility. The precise interior of the common house has not yet been defined. It would be easy to add workstations and/or “zoom booths” if owners want to add that to the design.

At this time, none of the units have been assigned. There are six different unit types (A-F), with 4-12 units of each type. The members who sign up earliest get the choices in the order they signed up and remain fully paid, so the best way to ensure you will get your first choice unit is to sign up quickly and to keep up with the deposit schedule.

Yes, within site plan limits it may be possible to rearrange the unit layouts to have more or fewer of a certain unit type.

They are all 9' right now. The ground level flats have a 10' ceiling. There will be no ceiling under 8.5’.

We're thinking a white stucco with a sand finish that's really elegant.

The distance is between 50-60' at the flats/carriage houses and 40-50' between the fronts of the townhomes. This is wider than the space between fronts of units at WS or SSV projects.

Yes, those types of decisions are still TBD in the unit design workshop. Right now, the smaller townhome is 1.5 bath and the larger one is 2.5 bath.

Guest parking is currently shown near 44th to the west of the common house. We usually don't assign open surface parking, so that can be good for guests too. Plenty of parking is required by code, and so far we have not asked for a parking reduction. The code asks for 1/10 additional guest parking stalls beyond the ones required for residents, which is resulting in just over 2 guest parking spots per household in our plans.

Yes, under each carriage house porch is a storage area. Still TBD, but we could decide to make those into storage closets that could serve multiple households or just that carriage house. Also, the garages are 12x24 so there is enough depth in them for a lot of extra storage. We have found that in cohousing people share garages quite often so that’s an option too.

The land will become the property of the Blue Columbine Cohousing project at the time the construction financing is closed. That is when all funds are in the deal.

No, an individual buyer does not own any land. The land is owned by the HOA. The deed to the individual’s condo will be like any other condominium where you own your dwelling and are a part-owner of the common spaces, with rights to use the land and common area in accordance with the rules of the HOA. Once a buyer signs a “Reservation Agreement”, do they become part of Blue Columbine LLC? In other words, does the buyer become part of the “Seller” group, consequently involved in the go/no go decision? The reservation agreement provides you the right to enter into a purchase and sale agreement for a unit, and it affords certain rights and conditions relative to design input of the community. In the spirit of co-housing, buyers will be a part of the discussions on design and financing. Much like buying a condo, you do not have ownership rights until you close on your home.

If the Project does not proceed to construction or is otherwise terminated without being developed, and IF the Seller is able to sell the land for a profit, then within one (1) year after the Project termination, Seller will refund the deposits paid by Buyer from the profits of the land sale minus expenses incurred by Blue Columbine Land LLC. Incurred expenses include but are not limited to costs incurred in the land purchase, including the due diligence costs, etc. After project reimbursements, the land group would realize a 5%/year return for their risk in securing the land for this project., then the buyer deposits would be returned with all remaining funds.

The Reservation Agreement addresses this and the distribution of returned funds.al this. The purchaser can get their money back in ways defined in the agreement, but to summarize: Monies will be refunded to non-purchasing Blue Columbine members ONLY after the sale of the last unit in the project (if the project gets built) OR upon sale of the land, and after the Land Group is paid back (if it doesn’t get built). This is why we have a “no go” date in mind (so that people’s money isn’t tied up indefinitely).

We haven’t made our rules for our homeowners’ association yet. The community fee will be on par with a condo association that has a 4000sf community space, landscaping, snow removal, swimming pool to maintain, water, electricity, sewer and property taxes on the common areas. A comparable estimate is between $450-$700/mo

There is discussion about it being based on the number of bedrooms, not the square footage as many of the costs aren’t relative to size - snow removal, landscaping etc. Number of bedrooms might better reflect the amount of usage for pool, internet, heat, water etc.

The Project and Deposit Schedule in the Sales and Community Information Package lists the Key Dates and Deposit minimum to contribute by that date (both amount and dates are subject to change). Your complete deposit secures your picking order for units, your ability to contribute to further design workshops and meetings, and your place in the community. In the event that an individual or family does not maintain the deposit schedule, they may be bumped down to a lower priority number for unit choice behind those who have fully paid. In order to secure a spot in the selection order, new buyers need to deposit an amount equal to the deposits that have then been collected thus far from the other buyers at the time of joining.

Our budget was designed a year ago by the national expert in cohousing development, Jim Leach. It is subject to change as we firm up design elements and as construction and borrowing costs vary over time. We can’t make any guarantees about the precise budget, but we are confident that it was written by the best possible team.

The payment total expected of members before move-in is estimated to be $175,000-$180,000 per family. As we move along the schedule, the deposits will continue to fund our progress (construction drawings, etc) until we secure a construction loan. ALL of the monies paid before move in go toward the cost of one’s unit (with some incentive money if you come in early enough). Some members have taken or will take, home equity credit lines to cover these payments.

For those who decide to opt out before the completion of the project, we plan to refund initial deposits to investors following completion of the project and sales of all units, minus any costs incurred (for example, design charette participation costs). In the unlikely event that the project does not proceed to completion, we will use profits from the land sale to reimburse investors, if available. See the reservation agreement questions below for more details.

Jim Leach of Wonderland Hill is acting as a consultant on our project. He wrote our budget and has provided valuable insights into the design and build process.

Early on we CHOSE not to hire a developer to build and sell our project for two very good reasons: Developers make money by charging buyers their profit (so the units cost more), and a developer might not build what we want in our cohousing community (many decisions would not be ours). By choosing to do it this way, we have a heavier burden, but save at least 20% on the total project (and individual unit costs) while maintaining complete design control. This is why we must convince community members to make substantial financial investments before anything gets built. THE ONLY WAY we will have a cohousing community is if we get commitments (purchase agreements) for roughly ¾ of the total number of units. Then we will secure a bank loan to finish building our project our way.

The land is being purchased by a separate entity called Blue Columbine Land LLC. The land is being purchased with the plan to sell the land to individuals buying Blue Columbine properties. The land will be the collateral for the construction loan, so when we get a construction loan, the land becomes part of Blue Columbine Cohousing. There is a small profit written into the budget for the Blue Columbine Land owners (5% or so)

They are some of the initial members of the project.

Yes. Although this is not a profit driven real estate investment deal, additional investment dollars will go a long way to securing the capital stack and reducing financing costs. Any investment returns will be modest but will help the project realize success.

The Land Investors are also the initial future residents and investors in the co-housing project. They have deposits that are being used for design and entitlements the same as every other committed resident. This project was not undertaken as a real estate investment profit driven deal. The land investors have taken the risk of securing the land to ensure this project will be successful.

The Blue Columbine Land LLC charter states, “The purpose of this company is to purchase real estate for the development of the Blue Columbine Cohousing community” and outlines that the land will become part of the collateral for the construction loan.

The "go/no go" date is not firm. However, the Land Acquisition Committee has set a time frame of about 18 months from the first charette payment (March 2023). Also, it is worth mentioning that the Land Group has the right to sell the land at a time of its choosing (i.e. the land wouldn’t necessarily be sold at the time the project folded). The reason for this is that the group has to be able to realize a return on its investment in order to repay members. If the market doesn't support that, the land won’t be sold until it does.