Logo of Mountain View Cohousing Community with tree and house icon.

Mountain View Cohousing Community

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Home-sharing
  • Urban

Founding year

  • 2008

What we do

We are in a residential neighborhood 6 blocks from Castro Street (the main street of Mountain View) and downtown amenities (restaurants and sidewalk cafes, bookstores and other shops, the performing arts center and library); near CalTrain, the Light Rail, bus depot, and the weekly farmers’ market; adjacent to Landels Elementary School; and close to the Stevens Creek Trail (biking and walking).
Our 19 condominiums are quite large, ranging in size from 1360 to 2090 sq ft. In addition, we have 6,000 sq ft of shared indoor space. The common house (4000+ sq ft) has facilities for entertainment, exercise, group dining, and crafts. Parking is underground, with some charging stations for electric cars. We also have a workshop, bicycle and other storage spaces, a large outdoor patio, and shared green space. A historic farmhouse on the property has been restored, and has space for meetings and guests.
Our buildings are “green” and energy efficient, with universal design and elevator access to all floors. The units are very well insulated to minimize sound transmission and to minimize the need for heating or cooling, regardless of outside temperature. Our community has an organic garden, 20-tree fruit orchard, and flowers.
The project was designed by members of our cohousing community via design workshops led by architect Chuck Durrett. It has been endorsed by the Greenbelt Alliance for its sustainable features.

Our Mission

A caring, egalitarian, environmentally sustainable, health-promoting, and fun-filled community built on trust and mutual respect, we are committed to nurturing our growth as individuals, as a community, and as participants in our neighborhood and beyond.

  • Purpose
  • Home-sharing
  • Community type
  • Cohousing
  • Activities
  • Property management

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2008
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2014
  • Started living together

Gallery

  • 29 Total members
  • Not open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
29

How to join

Get to know us to decide if this is a community where you would like to live.

Basic expectations or agreements for members

Check out our website: www.mvcoho.org
E-mail us at Inforequest@mvcoho.org

Primary decision-making authority

  • All Community Members Together

The whole membership decides collectively.

Decision-making process

  • Full Consensus

Everyone must agree before moving forward.

Governance structure

  • Collaborative/Horizontal

Power and responsibility are shared relatively equally among members.

Conflict resolution approach

Major decisions are based on consensus of all member households. More specialized functions are divided among teams of individual members, each of which makes its own decisions about how to carry out their responsibilities. The teams report back monthly to the group as a whole. There are rules about which types of decisions each team must bring to the membership as a whole for consideration or input, and which must be brought to the entire membership when consensus is necessary.

Economic model

  • Independent Finances

Members maintain separate personal finances with minimal sharing.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • Members need to pay fees, dues, or similar to live there on a per month or per year basis
  • There is a labor obligation
  • Members typically need to have their own job or other personal source of income to cover their expenses while living in the community?

Additional economic information

Regular fees: $800
Labor: Yes (3 hrs/week)
Members with pre-existing debt: allowed
Member households are responsible for finding their own financing, including mortgages if needed, and for paying their own bills.
Amount of monthly contribution to the HOA is high, because it covers property tax, repairs of shared items like the elevator, all utilities except electricity, and a set-aside for eventual repair or replacement of items like the roof and the irrigation system.
Monthly business meetings and committee/team work. The time spent on this totals 10-30 hrs/month; it varies by individual and the team(s).
There are monthly HOA dues.

Shared resources and amenities that are accessible to everyone in the community

Common House, Garden(s), Workshop, Large Scale Kitchen, Fire pit, Gym or sports area, Internet

Frequency of communal meals

  • 2-5 times per week

Significant food acquisition practices

  • Locally sourced

Community activities and engagement

  • Neighborhood, Community Housing, or Homeowner's Association

Substance use culture

  • Substance use appears in public spaces but no pressure
  • Substance use is prohibited in the community
  • Religions
  • Christian
  • Jewish
  • Unitarian Universalist

Gender composition

  • Majority cis (over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Mixed adults (few or no children)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • By a Land Trust, Home Owners Association, or corporation

Setting

  • Urban

Within city limits with access to urban amenities and infrastructure.

Community type

  • Cohousing

    Private homes with shared common facilities, designed for neighborly
    interaction while maintaining independence.

Self-produced energy

  • Over 66%

Energy sources used

Self-produced food

  • Up to 33%

Local, organic, or fair trade food

  • Up to 33%

Food systems

  • Community garden
  • Land area size
    1.1 acres

Guest Book

Written reviews are available for plus members. Click here to upgrade.

Location

  • California, United States

Mountain View Cohousing Community

Promoted Needs and Offers

Offer
  • Real Estate For Sale
6 months ago

House for Sale at Valley Oaks Village Chico, CA

Welcome to 1997 Wild Oak Lane in Chico, CA— a beautifully maintained 4 bedroom/3 bathroom 1,620 SqFt home nestled in an established Cohousing community. Step inside to discover a spacious open floor plan, which bamboo flooring, and generous natural lighting. The downstairs offers a bedroom, and bathroom off the main living room. The spacious dining room and kitchen has quartz countertop overlay and will lead you out to a bonus 11×12 fully enclosed porch. The upstairs provides laundry hookups, 2 additional bedrooms, including a large loft, and a bathroom with a jacuzzi tub.. The spacious main bedroom features an en suite bathroom and ample closet space. The back patio has low maintenance patio pavers, a new 6’x8′ shed along with a 220V Level 2 EV charger. See listing on Zillow.com COHOUSING DESCRIPTION – chicocohousing.org Valley Oaks Village was designed using the Cohousing model, built in 1996 with 28 homes on about 5 acres. We have numerous shared amenities, such as a large community building (“Common House”) with a kitchen, multipurpose dining room, lounge with wood stove, guest rooms, rec room, laundry, as well as a pool and sauna. Other shared amenities include a workshop/arts and crafts room, bike sheds, large grassy lawn, playground, pond, gardens and orchards. The neighborhood was designed to promote interactions between residents with picturesque pathways, benches and gathering areas. Valley Oaks Village is right next to Bidwell Park and Big Chico Creek with its running, hiking, horseback riding and park trails with a bike path to either downtown and Chico State University or upper Bidwell Park. Price- $470,000
Offer
  • Forming Communities
4 months ago

Join us in Our Adventure of Co-Creating a Life of Peace, Love, and Abundance Together!

LOOKING FOR OUR NEW FAMILY OF CO CREATORS TO JOIN OUR ADVENTURE! Message us to schedule a visit! More about us and our vision below! Read on and we look forward to hearing from you soon if you feel in alignment with our vision! A forming and co-created spiritually-oriented intentional community and homestead nestled in the beautiful woods of Northern Michigan. We are focused on self-awareness, free and open spiritual/consciousness development, sustainable living, self sufficiency, growing organic food, building small energy efficient homes/dwellings, peace, and freedom in all things. We are looking to build a community of like minded souls that share in our vision of creating a harmonious and sustainable way of life that is close to nature and focused on living from the heart/soul. Seeking kind, compassionate, caring, and emotionally mature souls who are good at non violent communication, resolving conflict peacefully, and working together. The community property is well on its way to sustainability already with a fruit orchard with over 18 apple trees and a variety of plum and pear trees. The property also has 2 very large organic gardens covering around 3 acres in total combined size filled with organic healthy vegetables for community self sufficiency, farm market selling, and food preserving (canning). We have plans to build a couple energy efficient green houses in the near future! We are also getting 30-40 chickens for egg production within the next month. Also considering a couple cows or goats for milk. We currently have 3 houses on the homestead property that are available to new community members for rent or work trade or a combination of both! The main community house has potentially 6 bedrooms available as well. We have plans to build multiple small/tiny homes and cabins in the beautiful woods here for members that are energy efficient and off grid with renewable clean energy/electricity and rainwater harvesting. We are working on a community in
Offer
  • Real Estate For Sale
4 months ago

3000sf House+Apartment, Rosewind Cohousing, Port Townsend WA

We are a retired couple who are downsizing, still living within the community. We are selling our large, flexible, comfortably rustic house, perfect for a multigenerational household, a family with kids or for 2 separate households. It’s 3000 square feet on 3 levels. The house is on a slope, with 2 main entrances. At one time it housed a large blended family. The current setup is a 2250 square foot, 2 bath main house with a 700 square foot rental apartment, also called an auxiliary dwelling unit (ADU). There is a staircase between the main and lower floor, with a lockable door. If desired, the ADU kitchen can be removed. The main floor has a very large kitchen/dining area, large living room, two small bedrooms, a bathroom with 2 sinks and a shower, a laundry room and a large mudroom. The non-bearing wall between the 2 bedrooms can be removed to turn it back to a single primary bedroom. The top floor has two bedrooms, one of which is primary with a large bright sitting area, and a large open middle area between them (game room, TV room, kids sleeping area, etc.). There is a bathroom with a claw-foot tub, no shower. The lower floor is the ADU, a finished storage area and a stand-up “crawl space“ which is used as a second pantry and storage. Attached to the house there is also a 150 sq ft wood paneled office/hobby space with its own electric and propane lines. Features: – straw bale construction, which is energy-efficient, great sound insulation, and provides a warm, soft, feeling. -very large functional kitchen with a long granite countertop. The dining area fits 10 people. -natural construction, with solid maple floors in the middle and upper level, marmoleum floor in kitchen and oak floor in the lower level. The two small bedrooms have painted wood floors. The doors are all solid wood. -large, functional, low maintenance patio area. Room for a table for eight and an additional sitting area. Propane hook ups for grills and smokers. -min

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