Both posting on a news article in the Olympian. Really interesting comments on that article about a Co-Housing complex here in Oly.

Myself I wish them all the luck in the world (Woodard Lane). They deserve it, they made it through the city of Olympia planning buzzsaw, and still pressed on to get this thing done. It cost a lot of money.

Co-housing

The article was laying on my desk when I got in the office this afternoon, because I am the Engineer of Record for that complex. In layman's terms it is just a condominium, with a parking lot on the side. I.e you don't get to park in front of each building, you park in the parking lot and walk to the units. There is a big central yard, which has a fire access route made from grass pavers (grids that give grass some structural strength). The sidewalk skirts the yard and gives access to each unit.

The people in the co-housing are generally, really nice, and I guess you could say hippies (but mostly "normal" by Olympia standards). All of them are far enough along in their careers to be able to finance a $4m condo project. They simply are trying to create the life for themselves that they want to live. Most of us like to have our own yards, our own shops, our own little world. These folks do not want to live that way, they want something different.

They met all of the codes, had all the hearings and council meetings, and paid all the design and construction fees to make this happen. They certainly deserve to get the life they want.