Cohousing Stanislaus seeks to bring together households to build a cooperative, transit- and bicycle-friendly community in or near Modesto, California. Through pooling resources, we wish to empower members and eventual residents to achieve greater harmony with the Web of Life. Also, we wish to design a community to offer personal private space and generous shared community space and to free up leisure for reflection, fellowship, and community involvement.

To honor our our social and ecological values, we favor a design which balances minimally toxic, earth friendlier building materials and energy-saving design features with affordability.

We will strive to minimize the automotive footprint on our shared living community, preserving as much space as possible for functional common and private indoor environments and open space for gardening, recreation, and, space permitting, wildlife.

Possible locations for siting our community are, ranked from most preferred to least, (1) an existing campus located near a downtown area which could be remodeled and/or expanded to suit community needs, (2) a project built from the ground up on infill near transit lines, (3) a wholly new project built at or near current suburban-rural boundaries, or (4) a project located outside existing urban boundaries.

Qualified to join our Yahoo discussion group are those who would be interested in participating in such a community, either current Stanislaus-area residents, or people considering moving to Stanislaus County, California.

For those who neither have a Yahoo account nor wish to join, information about meetings may be obtained by phoning (209) 523-8871.

Thanks to NASA for the photograph adapted here.