Valterra Village eCohousing

Mission: To build a friendly and safe community that meets the social and private needs of all ages with a small ecological footprint and options for sustainability.

From www.ic.org/directory/valterra-village-ecohousing/:

At Valterra Village, we are creating a cohousing community on a semi-rural property in the town of Qualicum Beach, Vancouver Island. The development intends to incorporate green building technologies within the typical pedestrian-friendly community of clustered homes and extensive common facilities.

From the Valterra site, a pleasant 35 minute walk, mostly along an existing trail system through Town-owned land, brings one into the town core. It is also a mere 10 minute walk down Laburnum Road to the new Qualicum Beach Elementary School. The serene location is set amidst beautiful Crown land forests, Town-owned parkland, and a buffer of privately-owned land adjacent to Laburnum Road.

To make the project more affordable and customizable, a proposal for two cohousing communities may be put forward. A multi-generational community of +/- 30 units would have spaces for all ages such as a tot lot and playroom, sound-proofed music room/teen space, craft room, mini gym, adult retreat, etc. This could be complimented by a community focused on empty nesters / seniors consisting of +/- 20 units with features geared towards "aging in place" including universal accessibility and a suite for a caregiver in the common house.

The site affords plenty of room for the two communities, shared orchards and gardens. Combined with 13 acres of adjacent farmland, the result would be much like the two communities that make up Yarrow Ecovillage in the Fraser Valley. There, several families in Groundswell Cohousing have a live/work situation as they lease the 20 acre certified organic commercial farm alongside other residents of Yarrow http://www.yarrowecovillage.ca/.

How involved individuals would be in the extensive lands outside of their actual community would be their choice. Some people are happy to participate in what cohousing offers in terms of social interaction at the heart of the community – the common house - while others are excited to extend that experience to include producing their own organic food in the community gardens.

For a wealth of information about cohousing, including a video and slide show, visit the Canadian Cohousing Network at http://www.cohousing.ca/. Of special note is this video produced for the Belterra Cohousing Community on Bowen Island entitled "What is a Home" http://www.cohousing.org/node/1738.

Please reply via email if you are interested in finding out more about this amazing opportunity to enter the housing market in Qualicum Beach with the lifestyle of cohousing at the helm.

A service of the Data Commons Co-op. The project has been supported by Equal Exchange, the Cooperative Charitable Trust, the USDA, and many others - thank you! Tech volunteers over the years include: Benjamin Bradley with support from GAIA Host. Ben Mauer with support from Quilted. Paul Fitzpatrick. Ronin Tech Collective, Brattleboro Tech Collective, Sligo Computer Services. Jason Lemieux. Default map tiles courtesy of MapQuest. Default map data (c) OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA.