Timeline

The path so far

MAY to JULY 2021 Off Grid living in a Tiny House is researched, designed and priced up by Lisa. Contacts are made and a fire is lit. Our main contact is made, Stuart Bilby Waste Water Engineer https://www.stuartbilbyengineers.co.nz/  who will work with Regenerative principles to design our hydrology- how water interacts with the landscape.

AUGUST 2021 Lisa decides it’s time to test the Village Concept with Rotorua Lake Council. A connection is made with Council. Complimentary to that process countless hours also go into connecting with the amazing and generous Cohousing community throughout New Zealand and a path ahead looks possible.

Proposal number 1 is refined, developed and presented to Council.

SEPTEMBER 2021 Council work with us to refine Proposal number 2. Encouraged, Lisa creates the website to get it all ‘down on paper’

OCTOBER 2021 Further consideration with Council suggests we employ a planner to submit a ‘subject to’ Resource Consent pre approval. This will provide a sense of what is permissible and what is required to factor in to the future design, feasibility study and budgeting. In a Cohousing development, the development sequence is the reversal of a commercial development; with the buyers coming first and the land being sought further down the track. Council usually work with a development design designated to a piece of land when relating to the Resource Consent process. So for our process- with the people before the land, a ‘subject to’ pre approval begins a valuable layer of the conversation. And fortunately for us, just as this was happening our Planner arrived on the scene; Nikki Harnett of Fresh Perceptions  https://www.freshperceptions.co.nz/

MID OCT 2021 Nikki has given us a quote to submit a pre approval application. She and our graphic designer Architect Bobbie Cornell https://www.facebook.com/REALitiArchitecture/ have generously matched our paid hours by donating a percentage of their own time as they are so excited about our Village.

The Website and Village concept was launched via FB posts and people were invited to read, subscribe and on Sunday 31st October 4pm join our first group zoom to consider if this might be their future home.

NOV 2021 Our first group Zoom was a great opportunity to go over  more background behind the concept. This gave people the chance to try it on for size and fill in some of the blanks in their own consideration.

NOV 14th 4pm was our second zoom, each zoom is flavoured by the people on the chat at the time. This conversation went more down what it would be like personally to be a part of this.

DEC 2021 Our Architect Bobbie Cornell presents us with our draft concept plan click here to see

Our next group zoom wll be with Zola April 2022. Can’t make a group zoom, one on one sessions can be requested to learn more

MAR 2022 Lisa hands the Village over to Zola and the Village location moves from Rotorua to Nelson.

The path ahead

To the best of my knowledge this Village is one of the first of its kind in New Zealand… there are others brewing. To plan our way forward the account from Earthsong in Ranui has been incredibly insightful. Robin Allison a founding member has written an incredible handbook for groups like us. Along with Robins book, many conversations have been had with New Zealand Cohousing mentors and peers. Supplemented by the well established communities in America with their generous resources shared particularly from the American Cohousing Community.

We are currently at the stage where the concept is ready to test in the form of an application for a subject to Resource Consent Pre Approval. For that to happen, we need to pay Nikki for her services and have been quoted $3210 incl gst. But first our startup Village People need to gather, agree and fund the work (all financial contributions will be recorded and come off the final total) for that to happen.

AHEAD OF US

Once we gather a minimum core of 6 households, with the possibility of one or two renters and have consolidated our overarching principle and vision, agreed upon the design details relevant for the plan, (the design details are discussed throughout this website, minus the technical lingo which interfaces with the RMA and District Plan), we need to fund the Resource Consent pre approval plan and Nikki will submit her plan. Council will then put it through their planning team with much back and forward. This process will take about 6 to 8 weeks.

Once we have a clear idea from Council how to proceed with our design. We are then able to engage in a professional to do our first feasibility study. A quote has come in from Nikki Harnett at $900 for a financial feasibility study, with a more comprehensive feasibility study to provide and overview for an additional $810 - the second will be more like a development checklist. This again will need to be funded by the startup Village people. This will take our design and put it into an estimate of actual cost… which is the moment we are all waiting for… how much?

We are budgeting for land, consultants, consenting and development. If we need to, the development can be done in 2 stages, allowing the initial smaller group to get going and move on to our land with priority development in place. The plan we submit to Council will suggest the 2 phases and cover 2 zone options so we have multiple options considered.

The cost forecast will be divided (at this stage) between 12 residential sites. Site numbers will largely depend on the land size and contours. Allowing for the initial investors to put in no more than later arrivals. We will aim if funds allow to develop 4 rental sites, these will not be rent to buy. They will instead provide income for the Village to maintain its upkeep and be a  very cool place for renters to live.

During this time the group will be creating a list of site requirements for our land, developing group process groundwork for our community and our legal and financial structure ready for purchasing land and employing our team.

When we have enough of those pieces in place and as a group feel ready, we can then seriously pursue the search for our land.

The rest is fairly straightforward as a development concept… putting in an offer, offer accepted, fully refundable deposit paid, due diligence including round 2 with our Resource consent with Council, our due diligence will include special attention on developing a relationship with future neighbours so they have their chance to air their concerns, learn about our concept and arrive at a place where we are all confident about going ahead. Once the due diligence phase is satisfied and we have cash at the ready, we purchase our land freehold. Submit our finalised plan for the Resource Consent and start implementing our team to develop the entranceway, carpark, ring road, site boundaries for each site, storm and grey water systems and if funds allow at this stage carports, fencing, pathways, meeting house, workshop, clean creative space and planting.

The final figure will be divided by 12 to give us the actual final cost for each site, at a wild guess… and as you can see it is completely a guess at this stage I am thinking between $150 to $250 k to buy a site. I have been told $250 is way over budgeting. A Tiny House kitted up off grid will be about $175 to $200k for most of us. So, much more affordable than most urban dwelling, however one needs to pay for the site freehold and at least have a deposit for their Tiny to be able to be financed.