John Lightburn, 89, and his wife, Nadine, 87, have neighbors checking on them daily.
Friendly faces are constantly dropping in to make sure the Lightburns do not need a light-bulb changed or some handywork done around the house.
But it is not a retirement home where the Lightburns enjoy a little extra help from time to time. They are residents of Harmony Village, a co-housing community for all ages in Golden.
“We know each other, we help each other,” John Lightburn said. “We do everything that we can together. That’s what makes this kind of community so special.”
The Lightburns and a group of friends launched Golden’s first and only co-housing community 14 years ago, when the idea had just begun to spread to Colorado.
The idea for co-housing comes from Denmark. Such communities are planned, owned and managed by their residents. They feature individual units but are focused on common spaces. Often residents dine together in a community kitchen and participate in other community-focused activities.
Efficiency trumpeted
Harmony Village was the third co-housing community in the state. Today, there are 12 such communities, and more are in the works.
With so many pros to living in such a close-knit community setting, John Lightburn had trouble coming up with just one to call his favorite but said the efficiency of the complex is at the top of his list.
“It’s not just efficient for personal reasons but also environmentally,” John Lightburn said. “We have a common garden and a common orchard and common spaces that help us keep our energy costs down in our own units. The homes are built close to one another, and the layout really helps us use as little energy as possible.”
That combination of community and sustainability was the topic of the 10th annual National Co-housing Conference, held this weekend in Boulder, which featured an array of experts and presentations on the sustainable aspects of co-housing.
Conference chairman Jim Leach said that while sustainability fits naturally into the concept of co-housing, a greater sustainability movement nationwide has spurred further efforts in new and existing communities.
“This is a turning point in the co-housing movement,” Leach said. “We’re trying to reach out and link with the (greater) sustainability movement, and we haven’t done that before.”
Shared common areas, washing machines, dinners and gardens are some of the more typical ways co-housing communities save energy and money. But thanks to the national emphasis on efficiency, Colorado communities are becoming more high tech in their sustainability efforts, said Bryan Bowen, architect and conference program chair.
“Here in Colorado, we’re focusing quite a bit on several things, including energy performance,” Bowen said. “For example, on an annual basis producing as much energy as (the community) consumes by installing things like solar panels.”
Other sustainability trends emerging among co-housing communities include radiant reflectors, smaller boilers and a smaller-yet-functional unit design, which allows individual homes to be packed tightly together for heat exchange.
While some are built similarly to an apartment complex with shared walls, others, such as Harmony Village, are designed more like a neighborhood block from the 1950s, creating more individualized units.
Units cost a little more
More than half of the units in Colorado are market-rate for-sale units, though affordable housing and rental options have become more popular since the economic downturn, Leach said.
“There are several factors that go into the cost of co-housing units,” Leach said. “But on average, it doesn’t cost maybe 5 to 10 percent more than more common facilities.”
Arthur Okner, a co-housing resident and coordinator for 10 years, said after living in three co-housing communities, he finds the social benefits most rewarding.
Okner currently lives in Silver Sage Village in Boulder, the only senior co-housing community in the state and only the third in the nation, after spending the past seven years in multi-generational complexes, which are more typical to co-housing.
As a 68-year-old single man, Okner said community living has given him a family, something he would otherwise be without and at his age is nearly impossible to find.
