Housing

Prairie Unitarian Universalist Society Expansion (2014-15)

Led the effort to acquire and remodel a house next to Prairie UU Society. As the chair of the Housing & Property committee, I began the visioning process with a small group and later the entire congregation on purchasing this house. Turns out it had been a parsonage for a prior church, go figure :-). After several presentations, and some soul searching on whether to move or stay, the congregation decided to stay and pursue this property. With the help of the Board, I formed a second committee to look at the necessary changes on this house, with the help of an architect. This group determined that adding religious education and offices was the most important use, and after a few more meetings came up with a design and a budget (with the help of a building contractor).

Arboretum Cohousing Development (2006-08)

http://arboretumcohousing.org

Arboretum Cohousing is a 40 unit, urban infill development in Madison WI. This $9.6M development was on-time, on-budget, and sold out coming directly into the 2008 housing collapse. My role was to represent the ownership in the development process, the owners were also the developers in the cohousing style of consensus decision making and self-development. My primary responsibilities included: managing the $9.6M budget, including change orders and the unallocated spending; working with the architect, general contractor, and development consultant on ongoing issues during

development, material and color selection; owner upgrades, insuring orders were placed in a timely manner, resolving owners concerns; marketing, web site (primary sales vehicle), ads, home tours, and community sales events; keeping in touch with nearby neighbors and their concerns about construction, and inclusion in color selection; PUD plans and reviews with city Urban Design Commission, Planning Commission, City Council; subcontract for electrical and other needed improvements on 6 existing homes that were resold as is; lead volunteer teams on rennovation of a 3-unit, which included Habitat for Humanity volunteer; liaison with Habitat for Humanity on the construction of a duplex.