Planning is under way for a co-housing project in Canberra's north which will include up to 30 households.
The project, championed by Cohousing Canberra, will include a series of shared spaces and resources to be shared by residents.
The ACT government has set aside land for the project in Watson.
Plans for the co-housing development have been under way for five years, after Cohousing Canberra put forward a proposal in 2018 for the ACT government's demonstration housing project.
The demonstration housing project allowed developers, architects, builders and housing groups to pitch new models of housing that don't fit in with the government's planning rules.
Cohousing Canberra's proposal said it needed a block of land of about 5000 square metres to accommodate 20 to 30 units or townhouses.
There was discussion over the years about possible sites for the project but the land in Aspinall Street in Watson was allocated by the government last year.
As part of the co-housing model, each household would have their own private space but the development would include a shared space that is accessible for everyone living in the development.
"That shared space could be used for eating together to help build that community as a social community," Cohousing Canberra president Ian Ross said.
"It could be used for meetings, it could be used for socialising."
But the development could even have more shared spaces or resources.
"A variety of other resources could also be shared so there might be shared garden space or a community garden," Mr Ross said.
"There might be a tool library, there might be shared bicycles or even vehicles [or] there might be a playground.
"There's a number of different resources that can be shared in cohousing communities."
The group has engaged AMC Architecture to design the project and the organisation is working together to determine the final design. Working groups have been held with members and those interested in buying into the future development.
"We're now bringing in the professionals to help us weigh up some of the choices that have to be made about sizes of units," Mr Ross said.
"The variety of styles of units, the amount of space that's allocated to parking or garden and the various cost constraints that might be associated with that."
Mr Ross said there were about 90 members of the group, including many who would like to eventually live in the development. It will include some level of affordable housing and the group is looking to partner with a provider.
"A lot of people are interested in the concept and are seriously considering this kind of building a community not just the designing of a building but actually thinking about how the community will operate," he said.
"But of course people are not going to commit until they have a better sense of what's involved and how it looks and how the organisational structure runs and so we're in the middle of that process.
"We will need to have a certain number of people fairly committed to buying off-the-plan once we get to a planning stage but we're kind of in that in-between stage now where some people are certainly making early investments to help us be able to pay for architects."
There will be a restricted tender for the site before the end of the financial year, with only Cohousing Canberra being invited to apply.
"We will be asked to pay a commercial price for that block. We haven't been told what that price will be," Mr Ross said.
"More importantly, we will need to be able to demonstrate that we have a design and financial capability and an organisational capability that is consistent with what was put forward in 2018."
The project had been delayed due to a range of reasons including COVID, bushfires and the 2020 ACT election but Mr Ross also said this particular project was constrained by land.
"There's quite a difficulty in the ACT government working though the process of which pieces of land are possibilities for this kind of development," he said.
"It's a fairly tricky thing technically and politically, I suspect, to find the right spot for this kind of development."
There's a lot that will need to be done over the coming year to get the site ready, including enabling works which are not expected to happen until April next year.
"I would expect 2025 to be the year that people would move in, at this stage, but it's hard to be firm until you get further down the process," Mr Ross said.
"Things could move quicker, they could also move slower."
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