About C Street Village

Our core group, fifteen households of active adults and families, has been meeting regularly to make sustainable, intergenerational cohousing a reality in Marin. We've learned a great deal about site availability and cost models, and have teamed with CoHousing Solutions to move forward. We have a signed contract for our land and have completed 6 design workshops required to present our proposal to the city. 

Mission Statement

Our Vision
Novato Cohousing Now is an intentional, intergenerational community committed to sustainability, supporting one another and slowing down to appreciate what we are creating in the now together.
We are a group of 15 individuals, couples and families inviting others to grow with us into 34 households with a commitment for honoring our various backgrounds, careers, ages, passions and worldviews. We share a desire to living consciously in community that honors and respects a heartfelt way of being together in all aspects of living life and desire to share this experience as a model for our neighbors and the larger world.

Our Values

Living Simply
Sustainable, sensitive to the environment, sharing possessions, living in harmony with one another, helping one another, sharing lived wisdom.
nurturing environment
Inclusive, intergenerational, family-oriented, warm embracing relationships, welcoming, open, honest, caring, kind, fair, encouraging, mutual respect, acceptance, free of judgment.
creative self expression
Showing up as yourself, living your passions, living fully, slowing down, appreciating the now, place of beauty, quiet, calm, happiness, humor, fun, joy, expressing your dreams, lifelong learning, mentoring, growing the self for the sake of all.
community pride
Participating for success, quality leadership, taking responsibility, following rules, pragmatic, embracing change, rational egalitarianism, community is higher priority than individual, balancing privacy with opportunities to interact with others, creating community traditions.        
peace and justice
Freedom from 'isms,' seeing the big picture, everyone's basic needs met, taking action in a peaceful, thoughtful way, helping neighbors, involvement in the larger community, thinking and acting globally.

Early Beginnings

John Caye and Judy Slater are project co-founders. They met on the last day of the National Cohousing Conference in Durham in May 2015. They discovered they lived three blocks from each other and were eyeing the same property. Ever since then, they've met regularly to dream, scheme and plan the perfect cohousing community for Marin, gathering additional committed members along the way.
Cohousing development dovetails nicely into both their ambitions. John is part of the  500 Communities Program launched by CoHousing Solutions, and Judy is fulfilling her Leader Quest through her Coaches Training Institute's Leadership Program.

Judy made a list of all the qualities she wanted in a co-leader and John had them all (and still wants to know what they are!). John calls Judy his instigator and together, he plans and manages the site and financial aspects of the project while she works to promote cohousing to local government officials, coordinate the social dynamics of group building and keep the project moving forward.