June 24, 2009

Co-housing group's project is ‘deep-green'

By KATIE ZEMTSEFF
Journal Staff Reporter

The team is using many low impact development techniques such as raingardens, green roofs, pin foundations and permeable paving. They wanted to go further but were limited by county regulations.

In unincorporated Snohomish County, a 16-unit “deep green co-housing” project just received its last permit approval.

The project is being created by a group of families who share the same values. They want it to be a model of low impact development techniques.

There will be a presentation today on the project, called Clearwater Commons, starting with a brown bag lunch at 11:30 a.m. at the Clearwater School, with site tours to follow. The school is located at 1510 196th St. S.E. near Bothell.

Clearwater Commons will have 16 sustainably designed units. Five of the units will be single-family detached houses, 10 will be townhomes and a farm house on the site has already been remodeled. The farmhouse is owned by Tom Campbell, who is project manager for Clearwater.

Six of the units have been pre-sold. There are 10 units remaining; they will likely cost about $500,000. The project will also include a 2,500-square-foot common house for meetings and community projects.

Banyon Design Studio is architect, landscape architect and site planner.

This is not the first venture the group of families has taken on. They also founded the Clearwater School, a “democratic school” for children ages 4 to 19. Students there choose what to do with their time, based on the Sudbury School model.

Campbell said the process of developing Clearwater Commons started when Clearwater School relocated from Seattle to Snohomish County. Right across the street from the school, he said, was a preliminary short plat that included wetlands, forest, garden space and a salmon-supporting creek.

“It was like a dream come true,” Campbell said.

The families formed Clearwater Commons LLC and bought the 7.4-acre site on North Creek in 2006. Getting the project permitted took three years, a process Campbell described as “very difficult and torturous.”

The Clearwater team wanted to create a complex that treated all of the stormwater that passed through it and was a model for low impact development techniques. But Campbell said permitting took an extra year because the low impact aspects all required variances and had to be approved separately from the standard process.

Campbell, who said he spent 10 years helping to develop the state's Growth Management Act with the state Legislature and the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development, said it was interesting to be on the other side of the fence.

“Here I am, a GMA policy wonk and all of a sudden, I'm sitting across the desk from those who are implementing policy that I created,” he said.

Campbell now does large-scale public engagement consulting work. Some of the projects he has worked on include the World Trade Center site in New York and rebuilding in the city of New Orleans.

Campbell said Clearwater Commons continues his personal goal of exploring the next level of urban living. He hopes it will be an example for other projects.

“I have this whole long history of wanting to show that there's a new way of doing (urban planning) that's both dense and environmentally sensitive, and supports the broader sustainable values of community that I think are important in this day and age.”

The project will break ground this summer. It is being funded by the home owners.

Campbell said he has talked to 12 banks so far for funding but the economic environment has made it a difficult time to build.

Chad Port of Banyon is designing the project, along with his wife, Lisa Port.

Chad Port said the team has dubbed the project “co-housing lite” because the decision to live together was prompted by finding a great space, rather than a group of people who wanted to live together.

The project, he said, will be a cross between co-housing and a cottage development, somewhat like a condo association.

His family was attracted to the project because of the extended community, he said.

“What we like about it is, with kids, just them being able to run around free and have friends nearby and the school being across the street,” Port said.

Many of the families financing the development also have children in the school.

The team is working with many different low impact techniques. Raingardens and green roofs will treat water, and pin foundations will minimize on-site disturbance. There will also be rainwater catchment, permeable paving, small building footprints of 800 square feet and native drought-tolerant plantings.

Campbell said the team wanted to go even further but was limited by what the county would allow. “There's just no way counties are ready to accept them.”

For example, he said, the team wanted 18-foot-wide roads but the fire department requires 20-foot-wide roads. “We really became pioneers in the LID process. We're using all the techniques, not just doing a raingarden or a pervious sidewalk.”

The team is also partnering with Snohomish County Surface Water Management to restore the site's portion of North Creek. The quarter mile of North Creek, called the Clearwater Reach, is considered one of the best opportunities to restore salmon habitat in south Snohomish County.

Grants have been received from Snohomish County and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for the work.

Other team members on the project include 2020 Engineering, civil engineer; Watershed Co., wetland biologist; Snoco Surface Water Management, stream restoration; Transportation Engineering Northwest, transportation work; and ESM Consulting Engineers, surveying.

For more information, visit http://clearwatercommons.com.

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Katie Zemtseff can be reached by email or by phone at (206) 622-8272.