Twenty-four homes. One common living room.
That’s the setup for Gainesville Cohousing, a Northwest Gainesville communal neighborhood in the making. The multigenerational community is seeking younger families to fill up its eight remaining spots, founder Brooks Nelson said.
“We’re looking for people who share our vision,” said Nelson, who will move into the community with his wife Jeanine. He envisions a tight-knit, environmentally friendly place to live.
Construction was supposed to start in March, but is now expected to begin in September, Nelson said. It will take between six and nine months to complete.
Residents will live in separate, smaller-than-average homes and share a common house featuring a dining room, laundry machines and guest cottages. Smaller homes leave smaller footprints, Nelson said.
“The common house is kind of the heart of the community,” he said. “It’s meant to be used pretty extensively by the numbers. It tends to be thought of as an extension of your own living room.”
This is exactly what Burt and Gale Kempner, 67 and 70, respectively, have been looking for. The Kempners, whose family members live up north, are looking to expand their family in the South.
“Every now and then, we would go to a search engine and put in ‘Florida cohousing’ and never get anything,” Burt Kempner said. “A year and a half ago, it changed.”
To join, a family pays an initial $250 and attends a meeting. After five meetings, the rest of the members unanimously vote to accept the family into the community. An additional $7,500 guarantees them a spot and goes toward the house payment — between $125,000 and $200,000 depending on size.
Cohousing is nothing new to a group of 80 UF and Santa Fe College students living together at the student-run Cooperative Living Organization. Located behind Chipotle on West University Avenue, the dorm-style housing charges $350 per month and includes a meal plan, water, utilities and parking.
The students maintain the building and help run the organization in return.
“What was most interesting and appealing to me was the fact that you get that family aspect,” said Mimi Kurpier, the community president.
The 21-year-old UF architecture junior has lived there for about three years.
“Nowadays it’s hard with everybody invested in their own lives,” Kurpier said. “If you live in an apartment, you wouldn’t necessarily talk to your neighbors. That’s the most important advantage of a place like this.”
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 2/27/2015 under the headline “Gainesville Cohousing looking for young families to fill spots”]
