Aug. 9: North Bay (Sonoma County, CA) Carpool/biofuel tour: Cohousing Communities Coalesce!

Daily Acts, a regional sustainability grassroots organization is organizing this unique, affordable, intimate tour for the fourth year, reaching small retrofit communities that don't make it onto the big bus tours, with a strong emphasis on natural building, permaculture and community. Northern California Cohousing regional organizer Raines Cohen and Coho/US Research Director Betsy Morris have been on this tour and recommend it.

Rendezvous at 40 Oaks Cohousing Community in Petaluma for a delightful day of creative lifestyles and visions made real. Resident Claudia Cleaver, architect/designer of green and natural buildings, will tour us through the layers of sustainable design. These houses are cutting edge, using straw bales, Rastra, natural plasters, concrete floors, recycled and reclaimed materials and more!

Satiated with beauty, style and functionality, we'll head to FrogSong Cohousing of Cotati where residents will host us through a few homes and the lovely Permaculture food gardens. This down­town community creatively combines lovely home sites and storefront rental properties for commu­nal income. Get exposed to consensus decision-making process, ask questions, discuss the practical steps to beginning a cohousing community and learn from those already doing it.

We'll linger at FrogSong for a tasty potluck lunch, and meet some folks creating new cohousing groups in the area, both new-build and retrofit, aging-friendly and intergenerational, exploring the frontiers of green development and sustainability.

Last, but certainly not least, we'll caravan to Yulupa Cohousing in Santa Rosa. This unique en­deavor represents Sonoma County's most recently finished cohousing project. Yulupa Cohousing models a density of 29 homes on 1.65 acres, a viable alternative to endless "urban sprawl."

It's a day packed with images of life embedded in community and creative solutions. Register today - this small-group tour fills up fast.

The tour was to be co-hosted by and will be held in memory of Michael Black, architect and Yulupa community resident, who passed away this year.