Post by Rebecca Rollins on Mar 5, 2012 18:45:03 GMT -6
Cohousing General Meeting Minutes 2-5-2012
Site Committee
There are a couple of new properties in Bellevue under discussion.
The first one is land located at 0 Griffith St. It's on Hwy 100 just past the Loveless Cafe. The owner has already been briefly contacted. There will be a meeting at 2:30 this Thursday to walk the land and talk with the owner, assuming that the owner agrees to meet at this time. If not, then the group would try to do it Wednesday afternoon. The group will meet at the owners house, 747 Pine Hill Lane. There are several uncertainties about whether this property would be appropriate for cohousing, but the owner sounded very interested in the cohousing concept.
Diana will negotiate a meeting time with the owner.
Brad will find out about zoning rules on water and sewer.
The 2nd property is at 8881 Hwy 100. It's 33 acres, has lots of hills, a house, and no for sale sign on the property. No one has talked to the owner yet but the asking price is a little steep.
Hermitage property
Diana had a meeting with several people with several different people, including the land trust. They have turned in a grant application to buy and preserve land along the Cumberland (which hopefully will include part of the Hermitage property). By Feb. 14, they should know if they got the grant. The next steps after that would be to go to the city to talk about logistics. At some point we would do a "charette" which is like what we did with Greg Ramsey - have a large group meeting to decide what buildings we'll put on the property and where.
The urban property in Germantown
We offered them $750,000, and they countered. Randy said construction costs would likely be $90 a square foot, which would make the total unit costs from $150,000 to $300,00. This assumes 750-1500 square feet per unit, and includes the cost of building a common house. We could do multistory townhomes or flats, whatever is decided by the people who participate when we make the decision at the "charette" (see definition above). Last Friday Randy gave a tour to some people of a development that contains work done at $90 a square foot. Ask Diana for details if you like. The property would fit an average of 22 units, depending on how big the units are, and assuming 69 feet between them. Parking would be along the road and alleyway, and the buildings, including the common house would circle the outside of the property. The open area in the center would be for gardening, playground or whatever.
Marketing
Linda Ray created and brought a very useful cohousing poster/flyer. It's 8 1/2 by 11 with pull-off tabs with our website and email at the bottom. The posters were distributed to those present, and anybody who wasn't present can request some. Diana said a list of places she had success with placing flyers previously is on ProBoards. Starbucks, hardware stores, alternative health care places, etc. would be good ideas.
Communications
Linda Ray said she now knows how to edit the web page and she plans to change it to include a more extensive definition of cohousing.
Finance
We haven't made any financial transactions recently.
Other Business
Diana went to a TN Women in Green meeting and found out that the TVA is offering grants for unique energy efficiency and green technology projects. The grants are $250,000. TVA has to give out $5 million in grants because of the ash spill.
Diana said she thought real estate prices could go up because the supply of excess housing lots are exceeding demand.
Site Committee
There are a couple of new properties in Bellevue under discussion.
The first one is land located at 0 Griffith St. It's on Hwy 100 just past the Loveless Cafe. The owner has already been briefly contacted. There will be a meeting at 2:30 this Thursday to walk the land and talk with the owner, assuming that the owner agrees to meet at this time. If not, then the group would try to do it Wednesday afternoon. The group will meet at the owners house, 747 Pine Hill Lane. There are several uncertainties about whether this property would be appropriate for cohousing, but the owner sounded very interested in the cohousing concept.
Diana will negotiate a meeting time with the owner.
Brad will find out about zoning rules on water and sewer.
The 2nd property is at 8881 Hwy 100. It's 33 acres, has lots of hills, a house, and no for sale sign on the property. No one has talked to the owner yet but the asking price is a little steep.
Hermitage property
Diana had a meeting with several people with several different people, including the land trust. They have turned in a grant application to buy and preserve land along the Cumberland (which hopefully will include part of the Hermitage property). By Feb. 14, they should know if they got the grant. The next steps after that would be to go to the city to talk about logistics. At some point we would do a "charette" which is like what we did with Greg Ramsey - have a large group meeting to decide what buildings we'll put on the property and where.
The urban property in Germantown
We offered them $750,000, and they countered. Randy said construction costs would likely be $90 a square foot, which would make the total unit costs from $150,000 to $300,00. This assumes 750-1500 square feet per unit, and includes the cost of building a common house. We could do multistory townhomes or flats, whatever is decided by the people who participate when we make the decision at the "charette" (see definition above). Last Friday Randy gave a tour to some people of a development that contains work done at $90 a square foot. Ask Diana for details if you like. The property would fit an average of 22 units, depending on how big the units are, and assuming 69 feet between them. Parking would be along the road and alleyway, and the buildings, including the common house would circle the outside of the property. The open area in the center would be for gardening, playground or whatever.
Marketing
Linda Ray created and brought a very useful cohousing poster/flyer. It's 8 1/2 by 11 with pull-off tabs with our website and email at the bottom. The posters were distributed to those present, and anybody who wasn't present can request some. Diana said a list of places she had success with placing flyers previously is on ProBoards. Starbucks, hardware stores, alternative health care places, etc. would be good ideas.
Communications
Linda Ray said she now knows how to edit the web page and she plans to change it to include a more extensive definition of cohousing.
Finance
We haven't made any financial transactions recently.
Other Business
Diana went to a TN Women in Green meeting and found out that the TVA is offering grants for unique energy efficiency and green technology projects. The grants are $250,000. TVA has to give out $5 million in grants because of the ash spill.
Diana said she thought real estate prices could go up because the supply of excess housing lots are exceeding demand.