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.
Photos of Land
Overhead Site View
Unit Development Concepts
We are targeting an ‘ideal’ community size of 40-50 adults. We are choosing to use bedrooms as a proxy for adults, and settled on a 48 bedroom community. Our initial thinking about unit plans followed the tried and true cohousing approach of maximizing the number of units as zoning would allow. Our zoning allows 4 units/acre and the 1st parcel we are planning to develop is 4 acres. So our first concept was 16 3bed/2bath units, with one of the bedrooms configured to act as a tiny home with ~300 sq ft of space that includes a bath and a kitchenette. Below are the sketches of our first plan.
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 (design TBD) is shown in red. Parking is split with both uncovered parking and garage or storage units as well.
This concept anticipates a phased approach to construction in order to take advantage of a cycle of learning. This concept shows 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.
Evolution of Unit Concepts
In September of 2024, just as we were prepared to proceed by asking our civil engineer to prepare the design package for a permit application, we became aware the Pierce County was undergoing a 10-year update to it’s comprehensive plan due on Dec 31st. For an anxious few months it looked like our zoning would be cut in half in the new comp plan, only allowing 2 units per acre! (In late December, days before the plan was to be submitted, the county approved our amendment which restored our original 4 unit/acre zoning. YAY!)
The unexpected zoning challenge encouraged us to consider alternate schemes for housing 48 bedrooms which involved more and more sharing in the units. Below are concepts we developed showing sixteen 3 bedroom units, twelve 4 bedroom units, and eight 6 bedroom units. Note that the percentage of ‘tiny home’ bedrooms grows as the unit count shrinks. An unexpected side benefit was the realization that fewer units engenders fewer costly unit-based county fees…
The 6 bedroom/5 bath concept is attractive to us
This concept has to potential to lower the cost of entry into the community, especially for singles willing to start with a ‘tiny home’ bedroom. And, of course, all of the residents would have access to the common house as well as additional shared elements and resources elsewhere in the community. These sorts of additional resources are lacking in the usual “standalone Tiny Home ADU in the back yard” model.
This concept would allow extreme standardization, with only one floorpan for all of the homes. But the flexible design would allow residents to purchase or rent living spaces of 300, 600, 1200, 1500, 1800, 2100, or 2400 square feet. If we can use modular construction, each unit would show up as 4 truckloads, arriving less than one month after being ordered.
This concept has a physical structure that is designed to gracefully accommodate the cycle of life as people move from singles, to couples, to families, back to couples, and finally back to singles – especially if the legal and financial structure can be designed to allow flexibility.
Current Development Narrative (February 2025)
Puyallup Cohousing’s development narrative envisions a cohousing community designed to accommodate approximately 40-50 people in 48 bedrooms using a total of eight detached 6-bedroom single-story homes. Each residence spans around 2,400 square feet, contributing to a total of approximately 19,200 square feet of homes for the entire community. The homes are designed to promote shared rental opportunities, co-ownership, or co-living arrangements, ensuring a versatile and inclusive living environment. The homes will be supported by a common house of approximately 3000 sq ft, containing the ‘usual’ cohousing amenities.
To maximize efficiency and reduce construction costs, each home consists of four 14’x44’ modules that create a 6 bedroom/5 bath home.
- The first module contains the Kitchen/Dining/Living core;
- The second module contains a Bedroom/ADA Bathroom/Bedroom;
- The third and forth modules are designed as duplex bedroom units, each including bath and kitchenette. These bedrooms are intended to function as studio apartments or tiny home equivalents.
This standardized approach simplifies the building process while maintaining high-quality construction. The company we have chosen builds their modules to exceed the International Residential Code (IRC) and International Building Code (IBC) standards which are common for new stick-built construction. With only one floor plan repeated across all eight homes, the design achieves consistency and cost-effectiveness without sacrificing comfort or functionality.
Our hope is that we can de-couple the site development work from the unit construction, thereby minimizing peak capital demands. We will plan to develop the site in such a way the each modular home could be constructed separately off-site in a factory and then moved to a pre-arranged site. If successful, this scheme will avoid the need for all 8 homes to be built at once. The modular home factory build cycle is approximately 20 days which will eliminate some of the risks inherent in the 1-2 year construction cycle time for stick-built units.
The homes are intentionally designed to support shared living situations with careful considerations for circulation and soundproofing. This ensures privacy and ease of movement for residents. Additionally, every bedroom is equipped with both external and internal doors, offering residents greater flexibility in how they choose to use their living spaces.
Accessibility and inclusivity are central to our design philosophy. Each core 2-bedroom, 1-bath layout is designed to meet Universal Design standards and accommodate aging in place. Features include minimum 36-inch doors to ensure ease of access for all residents, roll-in no-lip showers, roll-under sinks, etc. The intent is to create an adaptable environment for individuals with diverse needs. Our vision for design of the units is driven by the idea that: “…if we’re lucky, we’ll all live long enough to be disabled…“
To support long-term affordability and flexible living arrangements, the community will adopt a legal structure that allows easy movement between spaces within the community. Structures we are exploring include 1) limited equity cooperatives; 2) condo of condos where each house is a condominium; 3) Condo of LLC’s where each house is an LLC. We’re searching for a legal structure that provides a sustainable framework for collective ownership, reduces speculative pressures, and fosters a strong sense of community while ensuring financial accessibility for future residents. By prioritizing thoughtful design and an innovative ownership model, we aim to create a vibrant and inclusive cohousing community that meets the evolving needs of its members.
The common house is usually considered to be very important to the community. In an attempt to hold down costs, we anticipate that the existing 1500 sq ft 3 bedroom/1 bath home with an additional 600 sq ft detached garage would be used as the initial common house. We will plan space on the site plan for the ‘real’ common house which will be constructed when a sufficient number of cohousers are moved into their units and arrive at a consensus as to what functions should be built into the permanent common house.