Planning Considerations for Cooperative Living
Houses in a neighbourhood in Ecovillage at Ithaca located at Ithaca, New York
How can people with land in rural areas wishing to share their property for others to live do so without the cost of rezoning and subdivision? How can people who wish to live rurally but can’t afford to purchase their own land get access to land to share with others? And how to do this in a way that provides security of tenure and affordability to all parties involved?
Across Aotearoa people on both sides of this equation are struggling to figure this out. Here in the Tasman District at the top of the South Island there is a planning rule which aims to make this easier—called the Cooperative Living (Plan Change 60)**.
I formed a local steering group here to run a series of events which helps to raise awareness and knowledge about how this can work for people with land and those looking for land to create micro-communities. Our events are structured to present technical information in the first half and connecting networking activities in the second half.
We started with an event in April to introduce the policy and the many ideas around cooperative living which attracted over 70 people. For the event in July, we invited a lawyer to present on the possible legal structures/arrangements that facilitate cooperative living—see Blog #1 on that event and to download the presentation. This month (August), we’re hosting a planner to speak about the resource consent and planning considerations to be able to apply to the council to use the planning rule.
If legal and planning matters don’t concern you yet you want to share your land/live on another’s land, I warn that you are vulnerable to the whim and behaviour of the other parties involved. I was that person 18 years ago and nearly lost everything I invested in the property on which I established my home. And, despite not wanting to involve council and lawyers at the beginning, they ended up being involved. In most cases, it’s only a matter of time before it gets to this crisis point.
The aim of this Cooperative Living event series is to provide enough knowledge from property and community living experts and and connection with others who share these values to give greater security of tenure, affordability, and ease to the process of setting up a cooperative living arrangements in rural areas.
Event
When: Sunday, 18 August 2024 from 4-6pm
Where: At the Riverside Community Hall, Lower Moutere
This event is for people interested in any form of cooperative living (ie tiny home village, ecovillage, co-living, co-housing, papakāinga, agrivillage, etc) in the Tasman District (top of the South Island NZ).
Part 1: Presentation on the Planning considerations (such as Resource Consent) that is required for using the Cooperative Living planning rule of Tasman District Council (TDC)
We will be hosting Mark Morris, a Planner with his own business and experience working with TDC, who will present on the planning considerations and aspects of the resource consent process to know about to make use of this planning rule. We offer this content in the hopes this will give more clarity, security, and affordability to the process of setting up a cooperative living arrangement within the Tasman District.
We will focus on the subtopics of:
NES-Highly Productive Land (2022)
Places to avoid (or be wary of) for cooperative living applications
Things that will help your cooperative living consent application
Part 2: Networking. We will offer some activities to get people connected in meaningful ways.
Plant-based nibbles and refreshments will be served. Your ticket price covers food, venue, koha for the presenter and facilitation. We greatly appreciate your participation and support.
The event is hosted by the Cooperative Living Steering Group and facilitated by Zola Rose of Common Ground who is a community development and community engagement practitioner living at Riverside Community in the Tasman District. Visit www.commonground.net.nz to get resources, sign up for the newsletter, download the strategy document, and more..
**(Plan Change 60) of the Tasman Resource Management Plan allows for 3+ dwellings on rural land as long as there is cooperative ownership or use of land and buildings. You can find the information document on this Cooperative Living prepared by TDC here.
Zola has recently launched the educational and inspirational show Homefullness: Change-making conversations on housing for people and planet to enable more affordable, connected, and sustainable places to live, found on podcast platforms, YouTube, and other social media. Learn about the show here: https://www.commonground.net.nz/show
About Common Ground: It is the consulting agency I started to provide professional services that enable more affordable, socially connected, resilient, and climate-adaptive housing and neighbourhood development and place-based living.
We work with local government, community housing providers, for-purpose developers, and groups of people wishing to lead their own housing initiatives.
We provide services in housing strategy, in design and facilitation of meaningful community engagement, in research, in policy development, in training in new approaches to better housing outcomes,
We also provide services in Workplace Culture and Communication to create more cohesive and effective teams and workplaces.
Why work with Common Ground:
We take a whole systems and innovative approach
we have decades of experience in community and regenerative development,
we have a compassionate work culture,
we are aligned with the community engagement best practices of IAP2,
our knowledge is research-based, and
we work with a spirit of joy, creativity, and collaboration.
Visit our website at https://www.commonground.net.nz/ to learn more about our services, get the two reports—one on housing for women and another on the community land trust model.
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