3/29/21 Zoom: sell Charlie’s

Important meeting Friday April at 11:00 at church. We have decisions to make!! Will we sell? Please come. Call Marla if you cannot be there in person.

1. Check in
2. The Email I sent 3/26/21

Today’s Bombshell News:

Carmen has decided she doesn’t want to sell right now, so her vacant 1.5 acres is not currently available.  St. Mark’s want’s Charlie’s land and house.  More land might become available in the future, but there’s no guarantee we could afford it with the rapidly rising prices in our area.  So, we need to decide if we want to build on Joe and Marla’s land (just under 3 acres) (sell Charlie’s to St. Marks) or keep Charlie’s land and not sell it to St. Marks (4.25 acres).  These are options 1 and 2 on the Financial options I wrote out on March 15.  Link here.  Think about it this weekend.  Call me if you have questions.  Please be ready to discuss and find a consensus on Monday.

In figuring out how our 3 acres would be arranged, this is an idea of how another community (Fair Oaks Ecohousing) arranged their houses.  Fair Oaks has 30 units from 834 to 1726sf  on 3.7 acres.  This is just an example… but it has grouped and connected houses around a central common area with park-and-walk apart from the houses.  If we are going to maximize the number of houses on the land, it would be along this concept.  Fair Oaks Ecovillage Site Plan
Here’s another neighborhood with detached houses: Danielson Grove.  They have 16 houses 651 – 1500 sf on 2.25 acres.  This website is from the Cottage Company that designs and builds “pocket neighborhoods”.  They’re all on the West coast, but give an idea of a compact community.  There are 9 communities shown on this website.
I highlight these websites to show that we can fit in more houses in our land than it seems at first glance.  
Lots to think about.

Monetary repercussions:

St Mark’s is flexible on when we close. They can wait until May 15. We can collect the rent in the mean time and move forward.

Investors whose funds are secured by the 11201 Davis will get paid off. We will still need some funds to get the project to development. I’ll try to get those $ estimates this week. I think as much as $50K will be needed to get it to the building point.

Pros and cons.

Consensus discussion of how to proceed.:

Consensus was not reached to sell the property. With only 1/2 of our members, we could not decide. It was suggested we explore selling only the front yard of the house to St. Marks. Marla will play with surveys and drawing lines to see if we might sell them the front yard, but keep the house and barn.

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Other Business

2. A side note: the VA just announced they are building a new health facility at Davis Rd and TT Highway. Thank heavens we bought the land now. The value of our project will double again in a couple years.

Another side note: HIllsborough county voted last night to substantially increase the impact fees. Ouch. I wonder if we could get a reduction if we included affordable housing?

3. What about affordable housing? Who can research it? Is there funding so we could make a couple of the houses affordable? A bigger thought is to make this an affordable community forever… non-profit association…. limit profits? have extra profits returned to the Ownership Group. Sponsor immigrants. Help less fortunate.

4. The survey is ordered and scheduled for Tuesday morning (tomorrow). Who can be there to learn about the trees?

Tom and Jerry (haha) will be there to unload the concrete tables from Marla’s trailer into the church plaza and then label the trees as the surveyor marks them.

5. Sue and Roger and I are working on Mission and Vision statements. Also on a survey about what we want the project to look like and be focused on.

Our mission is to create, together, a great place to live together -where each resident feels respected, befriended, valued, and eager to contribute to the good of our community.

4. The name game: new suggestion: Legacy Oaks, or Legacy Oak Village, or Legacy Oak Commons, Sacred Oaks,

5. It’s time for a survey to narrow in on the types and sizes and styles and people in our community. Here’s the beginning. Do you have any to add?

1. What category of “resident” do you plan to be at the Village? renter, landlord, resident owner -full-time, 9 month, 6 month)
2. If purchasing a unit, what is your budget range?
3. What size residence do you prefer?
4. With whom would you like to share this Village, as neighbors?
5. When do you anticipate wanting to move in?
6. How long do you plan to live at the Village?
7. Which values do you think should guide us in order for the Village to succeed?
8. Do you feel you have strong skills making decisions through consensus seeking?
9. Do you want to strengthen your skills in avoiding conflict and resolving differences respectfully?
10. For which kinds of work at the Village would you like to be involved in teamwork?
11. Which facilities would you like to share with your neighbors in the Common House and other areas?
12. What outdoor facilities would you like to share with your neighbors?

Do you want to live in a community like this?