Take or Trade Weekend

Dear Neighbors -

I will be putting free stuff outside for taking this weekend. Please stop by and see what there might be for you. There will be a lot of women's clothing and a variety of other goodies.

If you are so inspired to do the same - go ahead!

chelsea

From Thursday's New Market/Urbana Gazette

Liberty Village moves to finish ‘cohousing' community

by Christian Brown, Staff Writer

Residents of Liberty Village gathered Sunday to welcome visitors in the hopes that some might want to buy a house.
The 18-house community near Libertytown immediately stands out as different.
Driveways do not lead up to the houses, which are clustered around benches with a fountain in the center.
Asphalt paths weave through the center of the homes, and children play on bicycles or run about without fear of competing with automobile traffic. All vehicles are parked in a communal, paved lot overlooking the homes.Kyra Raphaelidis was sitting on the benches Sunday, visiting her brother, Janus Raphaelidis, who lives in Liberty Village. She said the friendly, open nature of the community feels like "being on vacation every day."
"I don't know how you would get much done," Raphaelidis said.
But that's how Liberty Village residents want to live.
The Liberty Village Community Association began building what was supposed to be a 28-home "cohousing" community in 1999. The idea of cohousing is that residents want to work together, share community meals and events, and be more involved in each other's lives.
While they each own their own houses, they work together to maintain the community, raise chickens, garden, and come together once or twice a week for a community meal.
When Martie Weatherly moved into her home in 2001, she was instantly struck by the charm of the community. "I felt like I was at camp," she said.
But with only 18 houses built, the community is not finished. Ten more homes and a common building for community meals and events need to be built for the Liberty Village Community Association to fulfill its original vision.
The county imposed a building moratorium in 2002 because the sewer connected to Liberty Village and nearby Libertytown could not handle the amount of wastewater flowing into it.
The Frederick Board of County Commissioners lifted the moratorium was on Sept. 26, 2009, after the county expanded the wastewater treatment plant and related systems.
The moratorium's end caught the community off-guard, and now Liberty Village Community Association is looking for 10 people or families who would like to build a home, and held an open house on Sunday.
"We're trying to figure out how to let people know we're out here," said Igor Cerny, who moved in last summer.
The homes start at $278,000, and are usually between 1,000 and 2,200 square feet, according to Weatherly.
Weatherly said the philosophy of cohousing is one in which neighbors involve themselves in each other's lives.
For instance, it's not unusual for the walk from car to home to take 45 minutes as residents catch up with each other along the way.
The Liberty Village Community Association, which is made up of all the residents in the neighborhood, controls who can buy the lots upon which the 10 houses would be built.
Weatherly said prospective buyers are encouraged to get to know the community before they move in to ensure they fit in.
Weatherly said that four new homes have to be sold before the community can build a common building, which is essential to the cohousing lifestyle.
But it is not a commune, as Cerny often has to point out to friends and relatives.
"I own my own house," he said, refuting the idea that everything is communally-owned.
Cerny lived in Takoma Park for 23 years, until he and his family moved to Liberty Village in July 2009.
He said rather it is more like the neighborhoods of the 1950s, where neighbors cared for each other and regularly interact more than with just a friendly wave, but with a "greener" bent.
For instance, the homes use geothermal energy for heating, saving money on heating bills. They also raise their own chickens for their eggs, tying into a broader movement for locally grown food.
Neighbors also look out for each other, Cerny said.
During the three major snowstorms this winter, neighbors dug themselves out, and helped out others who were physically unable to do so. Cerny said he remembered reading a story about a neighborhood in Baltimore where residents banded together to dig out after their local government failed to do so.
Cerny found himself wondering why neighbors banding together to work on a common problem was big news now that he lives in a community that dedicates itself to exactly that.
However, he did say that it was not the norm for other communities.
"That didn't happen in my old neighborhood," he said.

E-mail Christian Brown at chbrown@gazette.net.