Legal Options for Cooperative Living, Top of the South

This event is for people interested in any form of cooperative living, (ie tiny home village, ecovillage, co-living, co-housing, papakāinga, agrivillage, etc) in Te Tauihu (top of the South), Aotearoa NZ.  We welcome iwi, community-based organisations, developers, builders, council staff, elected members, students, and general members of the public.

Part 1: Presentation on the legal options for using the Cooperative Living planning rule (Plan Change 60) of the Tasman Resource Management Plan which allows for 3+ dwellings on rural land as long as there is cooperative ownership or use of land and buildings.

We will be hosting Michael Stocker, a director and lawyer at Client Legal Solutions, who will present on the many legal structures and arrangements that could be done to make use of this planning rule.  We offer this content in the hopes this will give more clarity, security, and affordability to the process of setting up a cooperative living arrangement.

We will focus on the subtopics of:

• Landowners wishing to use this planning rule and not transfer title to a group (keep ownership) and therefore a focus on the cooperative “use” rather than “ownership” of land and buildings
• Groups wishing to purchase land together with a focus on the “co-op ownership” aspect, at least for land
• How security of tenure can be strong for those with the “use” option (lease) for all parties
• Ways to keep affordability in the legal and consenting process
• Possibly, we could touch on democatisation (i.e. how much control the landower retains in the “use” option, vs. devolving decisions to a wider group)
• Email Zola (the organiser) if there is a related legal topic you'd like covered.  We will have time for Q&A with Michael.

Part 2: Networking. We will offer some activities to get people connected in meaningful ways.

Plant-based nibbles and refreshments will be served.

Your ticket price covers food, venue, koha for the legal presentation and facilitation.  We greatly appreciate your participation and support.

The event is hosted by the Cooperative Living Steering Group and facilitated by Zola Rose of Common Ground who is a community development and community engagement practitioner living at Riverside Community in the Tasman District. Visit www.commonground.net.nz to get resources, sign up for the newsletter, download the strategy document, and more..

Zola has recently launched the educational and inspirational show Homefullness: Change-making conversations on housing for people and planet to enable more affordable, connected, and sustainable places to live, found on podcast platforms, YouTube, and other social media. Learn about the show here: https://www.commonground.net.nz/show