HESq <br />TAYLOR Becky G <br />From: <br />Sent: <br />To: <br />Subject: <br />Attachments: <br />Follow Up Flag: <br />Flag Status: <br />majrafferty@gmail.com on behalf of Maj Hutchinson <majhutchinson@gmail.com> <br />Thursday, September 26, 2013 11:24 PM <br />TAYLOR Becky G <br />Opposition to OMC development <br />OMC Unit Scenario numbers.pdf <br />Follow up <br />Completed <br />W <br />Dear Ms. Taylor <br />I am a resident living on Oakleigh Lane who is very concerned about the excessively large Oakleigh <br />Meadow Co-housing (OMC) development proposed.at the end of our quiet, dead end street. We have <br />entered into mediation with OMC to work toward a compromise of decreasing the size of the project <br />(currently 29 units). <br />They have informed the neighbors that they are unwilling to reconsider the size and in recent talks cited <br />two reasons for having such an oversized project: 1) the ne d for enough functioning adults to make the <br />community run and 2) the need to spread the cost of the shared expenses among more members (such as <br />the common house). <br />OMC has told the neighbors that they needed to have a large enough community to have "50 functional <br />adults." They said they have been advised that they need t have this large scale size in order to have a <br />successful, functioning co-housing community. I researched existing co-housing projects on 2 and 3 acre <br />lots in the U.S. You can view this information at httn: //www.cohousine.ora/directory/view/6179. <br />Listed on the site, there are twenty-one existing 2-3 acre co-housing sites (ranging in the number of units <br />from 8-41). The average number of units 23. OMC is saying that they need 6 units above the <br />average. What's more, 6 out of 21 (29%) of these 2 and 3 acres projects are 15 units or fewer. These. <br />numbers point to the fact that there is no "magic number" (needed, that OMC is asking for more than even <br />the average co-housing group on land of their size. Further, that nearly a third of the co-housing projects <br />are significantly smaller (15 units or less). <br />On the website of many of the larger sites (above 20 units), the setting is described as "urban." The OMC <br />website describes their setting as "suburban (mixed, feels rural, on the river)." It feels "rural" because it's <br />undeveloped green way, because there is nothing developed in that area all around it - for a reason. <br />The other argument that OMC has forwarded is that they, need to increase the number of units to spread <br />out the cost per family. They say that they are building modest units. However, even with these <br />speculative numbers, they are more expensive than the houses in the neighborhood around them. They <br />also finance a 4,000 square foot common house. One easy way to reduce the costs (and therefore, the <br />number of units) is to significantly downscale the commlon house. There is a site in Portland under <br />1142 <br />is <br />• <br />