The Land

History of the Site

Mike, a founding member of Puyallup Cohousing, bought the farm in 1988 from two elderly sisters who had been growing raspberries on the land since sometime around World War II. In the past, the Puyallup valley was a prime location for raspberry production, with all of the attendant infrastructure necessary to support farming berries. Local raspberry farms diminished in number as their lands were converted to housing and other development. The local packing company closed up shop. Large farms further north were more suitable for automation, hence making hand picking of small farms less competitive. Today, raspberries are a distant memory with other crops such as beans, corn, and pumpkins filling the void.

Development of the Puyallup Valley has continued, and sadly, farmlands are becoming less and less feasible. How best to serve as a good steward for as much as possible of the land in perpetuity? A caring cohousing community seems like a reasonable answer.

The farm consists of three contiguous tax parcels of land totaling 17 acres in Pierce County, WA. Two of the parcels (10.75 acres) are within the City of Puyallup’s future urban growth boundary, zoned for residential both in Pierce County and in the City of Puyallup’s long term plans. Our hope is that Cohousing could be developed as a group of clustered homes, thereby preserving as much of the land as possible while still satisfying the critical identified needs for more middle housing in the area.

Overhead Site View

1500 sq ft 3/2 Unit Floorplan Concept

Our building block is a ~1500 sq ft, 1 story, 3 bedroom/2 bath unit designed for easy sharing and co-living. Each bedroom would have access to the core as well as individual entrances to the outside. One of the bedrooms would be oversized (~300 sq ft) to function as a studio or ‘tiny home’ with its own bath and kitchenette.

This layout is designed to be easy for either conventionally stick-built construction onsite, or 14’x44′ modular units built in a factory and trucked to the site.

The intent is to allow for easy sharing as desired. Some scenarios: a large family in the whole space; a smaller family in the 2/1 with an unrelated occupant in the ‘tiny’; or three unrelated individuals. The amenities in the common house will serve as a valuable extension of the living quarters.

Flipped for a 3000 sq ft 6/4 Duplex

Duplex design is a compromise that preserves more land and open space at the expense of a shared wall.

Looked at through the lens of design for sharing/co-living begs the question: Could we reduce costs by designing this to be a 3000 sq ft ‘McMansion’ with our 6 bedrooms and 4 baths instead of a duplex? Some duplicated space could be eliminated and many construction costs are assigned as a function of ‘units’ and not ‘people’…

Preliminary Site Layout Sketch

The zoning on the 4 acre site allows for 4 units per acre, or a maximum of 16 units total. The site layout shows these 16 3 bedroom/2 bath units configured as 8 duplexes. This layout supports a 48 bedroom community, which should support our ideal community size of 40-50 people – especially if our preferred concept of co-living takes hold.

The common house is shown in red. Parking is split with both uncovered parking and garage or storage units as well.

We’re anticipating a phased approach to construction in order to take advantage of a cycle of learning. We will develop 16 units on the 4 acre parcel (as shown) in Phase 1. We would consider a second community on the 6.75 acre parcel as a future Phase 2.