Green Grove Cohousing · Forest Grove, Oregon
How this neighborhood actually works
Nine households on five acres. People ask what cohousing means in practice: who decides things, what you owe, what you share. Here are the specifics.
900–1,475 sq ft
ages 30–75
6 months–11 yrs
built 2017–2023
per adult, monthly
per month
Straight answers first
What buyers and agents need to know
Buying in
Listed on RMLS — anyone can buy it. No committee, no approval. “Membership” is a process residents go through after moving in, and it does carry real access to shared spaces, but it is not a gate on the purchase.
Renting out
Allowed, but capped at one year and the renter must be community-approved. Not an investment property — though an owner travelling for a year isn’t stuck either.
Parking & storage
There are no personal garages. Each household gets a covered assigned spot with an EV charger, plus a private 90 sq ft storage unit.
Governance
How things get decided
Nine households, no board of strangers. The system is called sociocracy — not consensus, and not majority rule. The work is split among circles: small groups, each with a stated purpose and the authority to act on it.
Circles decide by consent, which is not the same as everyone agreeing. The question is never “is this what you would have picked?” It’s is this good enough for now, and safe enough to try? Anyone can object, but an objection has to be about the work — a reason this would stop the circle doing what it’s there to do. Preferring something else isn’t enough. And decisions get revisited.
This is the detail most often reported wrong. A community that runs on consensus gives every individual a veto over anything they merely dislike, and meetings never end. Consent asks a narrower question, and that is why it works with nine households.
Design, Infrastructure & Buildings — common structures, roads, utilities, equipment.
Connection, Hospitality, Activities & Training — the Common House, meals, celebrations, training.
Finance, Records & Compliance — dues, the budget, filings, the workshare tracking system.
Membership, Outreach & Resales — prospective members, tours, the website, resale process.
Plants, Animals, Landscape & Shareables — land stewardship, the garden, the flock, shared gear.
Continuity, mission, health & safety, and the workshare policy.
What you owe
Workshare
Every adult puts in six hours a month. Last year the average came out to 6.89.
It isn’t all shovels — taking minutes counts, so does prepping an agenda or doing the research a circle needs before it can decide. Hours bank up to twenty-four, so you can travel. New residents get their first three months off while they learn how the place runs. Anything licensed, unsafe or genuinely miserable gets hired out.
Hours are tracked in the web app the community built for itself, where the reports live. Five days before month end, anyone still under quota gets a reminder email. If someone falls short, the conversation that follows is designed to be supportive and to ask whether the tasks were delegated well in the first place.
The money
What the $282/mo HOA covers
Insurance and reserves. Water, trash, recycling and sewer for every house, plus electricity and internet for the common buildings. Professional landscaping, arborists and repairs. Shared tools: mowers, the snowblower, garden equipment. Supplies for events, and the community’s memberships in CoHo US and Sociocracy For All.
Reserves are set by a professional study, updated annually, with a community trust helping keep them funded.
Why a small house works
1,475 square feet goes further here
Houses run 900 to 1,475 square feet. Every household gets a storage unit at the parking area. Tools are shared: a workshop and a long shed full of equipment, plus canoes, kayaks and bikes. The Common House has three guest rooms, so a small house can still host family.
The building at the middle of it
The Common House
The cooking happens in the houses — every home has a full kitchen with an induction range, and for a potluck people carry a dish over. The Common House kitchen is for serving what arrives.
The art studio is in the basement; books are shelved throughout rather than in one room. Three guest rooms upstairs, plus a family room with a pull-out couch, mean a 1,475 sq ft house can still put up four sets of visitors. The gym equipment is in the detached garage, along with the cider press and homebrew keg.
Sustainability
Built to run lean
14.7 kW of solar on the common buildings. A 30,000-gallon rainwater catchment that irrigates through most of the summer. A living roof on the carport. Kitchen waste composted, native and drought-resistant plantings.
And Unit #0 — a storage unit where the plastics, electronics and cans curbside won’t take accumulate until the neighbor whose job it is drives them to a facility that will. That run earns workshare hours like any other.
We consciously avoid zealotry in our commitment to sustainability practices. Green Grove’s own sustainability policy
The house that’s for sale
A detached three-bedroom, two-bath home at 3926 Coho Circle — 1,475 sq ft, with Mt. Hood from the living room.