By: John Delmer
Life Course Scholar
The co-housing group is composed of ten Life Course Scholar classmates. The purpose of the project is to aid in the development process of the first co-housing project located in San Diego. The group is divided into several sections which focus on a specific element of the project including: land use, design, environment, finance, etc. In order to help in this process, the co-housing group created a detailed annotated bibliography to form a good understanding of the history, successes, and failures of previous co-housing projects. Other responsibilities will include helping with site selection, development time line, and providing solutions to fast track the process.
On Wednesday February 22, the co-housing “Healthy-Aging Project” group and I were fortunate enough to go on our first site visit with the founders of the San Diego Urban Co-housing project. During the first part of the tour we met with the founders, Stefania Aulicino and Jim Condon, at a housing development in Point Loma that is the best representation of co-housing in San Diego. Although, the housing development is not exactly what the founders are envisioning, it did provide us with some of the desired aspects such as access to shared space, open space/nature, and public transportation.
The second part of the tour consisted of visiting four potential locations for the co-housing development nearby in Point Loma. The first site, which has the most potential for a successful co-housing project, is an existing warehouse building. The key aspects of this site is the strategic location on a main street which facilitates mobility, mixed use-development, and reuse of a current building instead which can cut down on development costs. The remaining three sites where all pre-existing multi-family residential developments that would need to be demolished and reconstructed. The negative aspect of these sites were a result of the location which is in a predominantly residential zone.
The take-away from our initial site visit was a better understanding of what the founders are envisioning for the co-housing project. The ideal development would be a sustainable smart growth development that focuses on “creating a community within a community.” The founders want to use the surrounding environment to their advantage in order to integrate the development into the existing community. I speak for the entire co-housing group when I say that we are looking forward to be apart of this project and helping with founding of San Diego’s first co-housing development.
Life Course Scholar
The co-housing group is composed of ten Life Course Scholar classmates. The purpose of the project is to aid in the development process of the first co-housing project located in San Diego. The group is divided into several sections which focus on a specific element of the project including: land use, design, environment, finance, etc. In order to help in this process, the co-housing group created a detailed annotated bibliography to form a good understanding of the history, successes, and failures of previous co-housing projects. Other responsibilities will include helping with site selection, development time line, and providing solutions to fast track the process.
On Wednesday February 22, the co-housing “Healthy-Aging Project” group and I were fortunate enough to go on our first site visit with the founders of the San Diego Urban Co-housing project. During the first part of the tour we met with the founders, Stefania Aulicino and Jim Condon, at a housing development in Point Loma that is the best representation of co-housing in San Diego. Although, the housing development is not exactly what the founders are envisioning, it did provide us with some of the desired aspects such as access to shared space, open space/nature, and public transportation.
The second part of the tour consisted of visiting four potential locations for the co-housing development nearby in Point Loma. The first site, which has the most potential for a successful co-housing project, is an existing warehouse building. The key aspects of this site is the strategic location on a main street which facilitates mobility, mixed use-development, and reuse of a current building instead which can cut down on development costs. The remaining three sites where all pre-existing multi-family residential developments that would need to be demolished and reconstructed. The negative aspect of these sites were a result of the location which is in a predominantly residential zone.
The take-away from our initial site visit was a better understanding of what the founders are envisioning for the co-housing project. The ideal development would be a sustainable smart growth development that focuses on “creating a community within a community.” The founders want to use the surrounding environment to their advantage in order to integrate the development into the existing community. I speak for the entire co-housing group when I say that we are looking forward to be apart of this project and helping with founding of San Diego’s first co-housing development.
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