I am now officially a member of Arboretum Cohousing. After investigating the project and attending a few meetings, I decided it would be worth my while to invest $500 into a possible change of living locations. And for me location is the key word.

The beauty of the surrounding landscape and recreational potential is huge. I would live one just or two blocks away from Lake Wingra, the University of Wisconsin Arboretum, the Henry Vilas Zoo, and the excellent network of recreational trails that go through Madison. That’s a lot of potential bicycling, hiking and kayaking, very close to home.

I consider myself an environmentalist, but I could be doing a lot more to save on my personal wear and tear of the planet. Being within walking distance of work (just 12 blocks), it’ll feel good to know I’m doing something about the amount of time I spend burning up petroleum products, and spewing exhaust into the atmosphere.

The project will be located in between Madison’s historic Vilas and Greenbush neighborhoods, adding more to its locational appeal.

The whole cohousing concept is an interesting one as well. Here you have a group of people that are building a community as well as living space. Over the past ten years or so I’ve lived in one apartment and two condominiums. During that time I’ve known maybe two of my neighbors pretty well. I believe apartments and condominiums can breed that kind of isolationism. If I do end up living in this cohousing project, I’m going to appreciate that sense of community with my neighbors.

But there’s a long way to go and there are a lot of unknowns. Design plans have to be finalized, rules and legal documents have to be developed, and there are no unit costs set yet. Right now the projected move-in date for the new units that will be constructed is the summer of 2007.

I’m really interested to find out what (if anything) sprouts out of the $500 seed I planted.