The Caspar Community will meet on the second Sunday in January to discuss opportunities for alternative housing strategies in and around their village. The meeting, beginning at 3 pm on January 9th at the Mendocino Coast Jewish Community Center (also known as the Caspar Shul) will feature a discussion of co-housing led by Wade Gray.
     Dr. Gray has been thinking and planning for a co-housing community, and has approached the Caspar Community with a proposal to build on undeveloped land in Caspar. The Caspar Community is enthusiastic about exploring co-housing and other means of developing land. "Co-housing is not at all a new idea, and thriving co-housing communities exist all over the U.S.", Dr Gray explained. "By clustering habitations, a greater area is preserved for agriculture, open space, and recreation. That seems like a perfect way to manage development along our coast."
     New forms of housing and development always raise interesting questions about land use planning, funding, and development time-lines. In addition, a start-up co-housing community must gather a nucleus of like-minded would-be community members. According to Dr. Gray, efforts to start a co-housing project going on the coast began years ago, but Caspar's community planning process may have created a very fertile opportunity for making the next steps.
     Other alternative housing strategies to be discussed at Sunday's meeting include senior housing and cluster housing.
     As always, anyone interested in Caspar's continuing planning process, or in this month's topic, are welcome at the meeting. For more information about Caspar, please visit the community's website at http://www.mcn.org/1/caspar .

written by Michael Potts for the Mendocino Beacon 6 Jan 2000