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A few weeks ago we opened Associate Membership in Heartwood's Phase 2 and the response has been great, overwhelming really. There are a lot of people out there looking for a better life in community, and more specifically, a life here at Heartwood. We now have 14 Associate Member households. Thank you everyone who signed up. You are critical to the success of Phase 2. In cohousing development, it's not, "Build it and they will come.", it's, "Find out if they will come and then build it." – much less risk for everyone involved. If you missed the big Associate Membership rollout, don't despair. Once Full Membership opens up and the $12,000 non-refundable deposit is required, there will certainly be some turnover. If you are seriously interested, I'd strongly encourage you to get in the Phase 2 queue by becoming an Associate Member. Chances are there will be room for you. Click here for info on becoming an Associate Member. Recent Progress As you know from my previous updates, collaborating with the County to obtain our necessary approvals is critical to the success of Phase 2. I've been meeting regularly with the La Plata County Planning Department and have completed their Feasibility Evaluation process. The results of that process look promising with seemingly no insurmountable obstacles in our path. One of the obstacles that we do face, but which we should be able to overcome, is to increase the density allowed on our land. Currently only 12 more lots would be allowed, but we'd like to possibly create 14 Phase 2 lots plus lots to allow for possible future farm housing. To increase the density, we need to amend the district map, which means submitting our amendment application by the August 1 deadline to then be considered during an October hearing. It's a slow process, but the Planning Department staff has given me confidence that we will be able to successfully amend the map. Simultaneous with amending the map, we will be applying for Conceptual Development Plan (CDP) approval with the County. I am currently working to prepare those two applications (map amendment and CDP). A necessary part of those applications is to request a specific number of lots near our cohousing cluster (cluster lots), a specific number of farm housing lots, and also possibly a specific number of lots down in the pasture (pasture lots). The cluster lots would be very similar to our existing lots, would be part of the Heartwood Cohousing community, and would share all of our community land and amenities. The possible pasture lots would be 3 to 5 acres each and would not be part of the community nor share our land and amenities. They would simply be new neighbors. One of the advantages of selling pasture lots would be to reduce the amount of pasture acreage we are responsible for stewarding. We have found stewarding pastureland to be quite a lot of work and we are committed to doing it the right way through organic farming practices. The other advantage of pasture lots is that they could make the whole Phase 2 development more economically feasible and potentially reduce the number of new households that we would add to the community. We have begun working within our community to decide how many households we may want to add to the community and whether we may want to develop pasture lots. As you can imagine, Phase 2 represents very big changes for us and those changes have come with some growing pains. We have grown to love our community as it is now, but we have also known all along that we need to develop Phase 2 in order to finally pay for all of our land. Additionally, we have come to appreciate the work and money needed to maintain our community and recognize that more hands will make for lighter work. And finally, our faith in cohousing's potential to affect positive change in a world which desperately needs more connection and community has only become stronger. Creating Phase 2 will allow more people to live in community and increase our impact in the world. Besides government approvals, the other critical piece in the development of P2 is marketing. The success with P2 Associate Membership is the big news on that front, but we have also been busy getting our 4th Friday Potlucks rolling. You've probably seen the email invitations that I've sent. Although we hold happy hours and potlucks every Friday, we are dedicating the 4th Friday of every month to reaching out to the larger community to invite them over to share a meal and get a feel for what we are all about. The Path Ahead I will continue to focus primarily on County approval and marketing. Additionally, this week I will be jumping on a plane to go to Portland, Oregon for the National Cohousing Conference. I hope to learn about current best practices in both developing and living in cohousing and to spread the word about Heartwood Cohousing. If you will be there, please let me know and we can meet up. I've had several people reply to these updates with questions. That's fantastic. I try to cover what I think is important, but obviously I can only share so much and often leave questions unanswered. Based on some of the questions I've received, I've created a Frequently Asked Questions section on the Phase 2 page on our website. If you have any questions, please check out that page and if you don't find your answer there, reply to this email and let me know. I'll get you an answer as soon as I get back from Portland. Another big event in our future is our annual fall community campout to Canyonlands National Park. This year's campout is happening from October 17 - 20. One of the great things about living in Southwest Colorado is our proximity to the vast red rock canyon country of Southeast Utah. It is truly one of the natural wonders of the world. If you would like to join the campout to get to know Heartwood community members and have fun hiking and relaxing in the desert, please let me know and I'll reserve your spot. We share the camping fees, which usually work out to be about $12 per person for the weekend. (See photos below.)   Yours in Community,
Mac Phase 2 Project Manager
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This past Wednesday I sent out a newsletter rolling out Associate Membership. We have had a very strong response and now have nine Associate Member households and counting. This is great news. Obtaining County approvals and recruiting enough members are the two big hurdles we must overcome to make Phase 2 a reality. Having nine Associate Members at this stage in the process is very encouraging. In case you missed that newsletter, here are the details of Heartwood Phase 2 membership. Membership in Phase 2 will basically happen in two stages:
The benefits to you of becoming an Associate Member...
The benefits to us of having Associate Members...
If you are seriously interested in being part of Phase 2, but are concerned that with nine Associate Members already in line there might not be a spot for you, don't be discouraged. Once Full Membership opens up and the $12,000 non-refundable deposit is required, there will certainly be some turnover. If you are seriously interested, I'd strongly encourage you to get in the Phase 2 queue by becoming an Associate Member. Chances are there will be room for you. To become an Associate Member...
I realize that this is a big step forward and I want you to have all of your questions answered. If you have any questions that are making you uncertain about becoming a Phase 2 Associate Member, please don't hesitate to reply to this email with your question or give me a call at nine-seven-zero-903-9751. Yours in Community,
Mac Phase 2 Project Manager As I mentioned in the last Phase 2 Update newsletter, my work is now focused on obtaining County approval and building membership. Good progress has been made in both those areas, but I'm going to wait until the next newsletter to provide that update. I'm going to devote this entire newsletter to rolling out Associate Membership. Membership in Phase 2 will basically happen in two stages:
The benefits to you of becoming an Associate Member...
The benefits to us of having Associate Members...
Back in 2009 we attempted to develop Phase 2, but were unable to because the highway department (CDOT) would not issue us an access permit until our highway intersection was upgraded. That upgrade has now been completed and we have our CDOT access permit. We still have a couple of Associate Members from 2009 who chose to hold onto their spots in the queue. Additionally, two Phase 1 households have signed up for Associate Membership, which means that we currently have four Phase 2 Associate Members. To become an Associate Member...
I realize that this is a big step forward and I want you to have all of your questions answered. If you have any questions that are making you uncertain about becoming a Phase 2 Associate Member, please don't hesitate to reply to this email with your question or give me a call at nine-seven-zero-903-9751. Yours in Community,
Mac Phase 2 Project Manager Well folks, here we go! This is the first installment of the Heartwood Cohousing Phase 2 Update newsletter. While the Heartwood Happenings newsletter that you've been receiving is all about sharing little glimpses of life here at Heartwood, the Phase 2 Update newsletter will provide you with the latest information about the development of our second phase. Recent Progress The most significant progress that we've made towards making Phase 2 a reality was collaborating with the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) to create a left turn lane off the highway (Hwy 160) onto our county road (CR 506). That secured for us a much safer intersection and a CDOT access permit for up to 20 new homes. The lack of a left turn lane had been the major obstacle preventing Phase 2 from happening for the past 19 years. Very exciting to get that resolved! With the access permit in hand, it's time to get to work. Back in 1998, we decided to create our community in two phases. Because we've evolved since then, we revisited that decision, working together for many months to revise our vision of Phase 2 (P2). Some of the significant new parts of our P2 vision include:
Although it's very important for us to create a vision for P2, the reality is that the County will have to approve our P2 development so they will have a huge impact on how P2 actually gets developed. The County approval process is one of the most critical pieces in our P2 development work and the one I'm most focused on right now. I've had several meetings with government agencies (county planners, fire department, health department, Town of Bayfield) and have more scheduled (road and bridge department, water division). Another critical piece in the success of P2 is marketing. Before we begin constructing roads, water, septic systems, and homes, we will want to have the lots pre-sold. To that end, our Membership team has been working hard to revamp our website (adding lots more information and photos), increase our social media presence (links at the bottom of this email), assist people with their exploration of Heartwood, and host lots of visitors coming to check out life in community. Another important recent focus has been to assemble our development team. I'm very excited about these professionals we'll be working with:
The Path Ahead I will continue to focus primarily on County approval and marketing. When we developed Phase 1, the County approval process took us a couple of years. The land use planning consultant I'm working with for P2 thinks that we should be able to get our approvals by the summer of 2020. As soon as we get County approval, we will be able to sell lots and begin construction. In marketing we will work to introduce more people to Heartwood and support them in their exploration. On the local level, in March we will begin monthly 4th Friday Happy Hours and Potlucks. We actually hold a community Happy Hour and Potluck every Friday, but on the 4th Friday of every month we will open them to the public, inviting anyone interested in learning more about Heartwood to come and join us. On a national level we will explore ways to introduce more people to Heartwood – that is, drive more traffic to our website. Also, I have made reservations to attend the National Cohousing Conference in Portland in early June. Not only will I be able to spread the good word about Heartwood, I will learn the latest strategies in cohousing development and build relationships with members of the larger cohousing movement. If you are interested in learning more about cohousing, you might want to consider attending also. I will soon be opening up Phase 2 membership so you'll be able to reserve your spot. Stay tuned to future newsletters for details. If you have been watching Heartwood from a distance, this would probably be a good time for you to plan for a visit so you will know if you want to become a P2 member when membership opens. The project is picking up speed. There are a limited number of spots and they will sell out. Phase 2 offers a unique opportunity to be a founding member of a new community and at the same time join an already successful community. To plan a visit to Heartwood, you can go to the Plan a Visit page of our website or simply reply to this email, which will put you in touch with Sandy, my wife and email contact person on our Membership team. Yours in Community,
Mac Phase 2 Project Manager |