The long term goal of the project is that the resident members share ownership of the property, probably through a co-op structure or possibly through share ownership in another corporate entity. How soon we can accomplish that will depend on organizational structural factors at the founding. It's plausible we could form a co-op immediately, but more likely we would have a different ownership structure for the first 5-10 years then a transition period to co-op, all laid out in advance in the initial founding documents.
The legal structure for initial ownership would be determined once we have a handful of co-owners, investors, and/or lenders on board, based on their needs and requirements. Once each of those stakeholders has stated their requirements, we'll bring that all to the attorneys to choose the necessary corporate entity(s) and layers.
There could be individual direct owners of the property with liens from lenders. We could form a MBC, LLC, Trust, or other entity controlled by one or more individuals. That entity could be for-profit or non-profit. There will be some bylaws for those entities and separate contracts between the owners and other entities in ownership and control, dictating how decisions will be made such as selling the property, how property taxes get paid, etc.
Separately and in addition to ownership of the property is the matter of deciding how it gets used. The ownership stakeholders will have top level control, veto authority over things like demolishing buildings, etc. Below that level there will be some group of people who makes decisions that affect the whole community and property.
This "Leadership Council" (working title) would be made up of the property owners (probably 1-10 people), a leader from each pod (probably 3-10 people), and some representatives elected from the CoDwell membership at large (probably 3-5 people). This group would be responsible for decisions that affect everyone using the property, negotiating quarterly planning with the pods, setting rules and policies for the members and visitors, etc.
Each pod will have its own internal governance and decision making structure for things that primarily to only affect that pod. If the pod controls some of the residential space, this would include "house rules" for that space. If the pod runs a business, this would be management of that business. If the pod owes some contributions of labor or money or projects to the community as a whole, this would include planning how to accomplish and meet those obligations.
Some pods might be democratic. A family or coparenting pod would probably do this, with each adult or couple or family having a vote in how the pod makes their decisions.
Some pods might use representative governance, where everyone gets to vote in an election, then the elected individual(s) make all the decisions until the next election. A pod organized around one of the functional amenities like the shops or gardens might use this system.
Some pods might be dictatorships. A pod with one to a few teachers who reside on site permanently and many students who come for a few weeks or months for a specific curriculum would likely fall into this category; the students wouldn't get a say in the long term operations of the pod and its classes.
Some pods might do something more unusual like sociocracy or holocracy. Anarchy is unlikely to be acceptable to the leadership council given the low likelihood that such a pod could live up to its obligations to the community.
As mentioned above, however they make internal decisions, each pod would probably also send a representative to the leadership council.
Individuals who reside on and interact with the property will be members of our intentional community. That community itself will have some legal structure, possibly a Public Benefit or Mutual Benefit Corporation depending on other factors. In the long run, if we manage to sync up the various legal structures, the entity that every member is part of would also be the entity that controls ownership of the property.
Members of the community will have voting rights to elect some representatives to the leadership council. These voting rights will also extend to any matters the council puts to the membership as a vote, which are likely to include some but not all large scale planning decisions.
Members will have access to the common areas of the property and facilities, with limitations established by the council and stewards of specific spaces, facilities, and amenities. Examples of such limitations:
quiet hours
weather related landscape damage
high demand facility reservation schedules
facilities and tools with high per-use or per-hour costs
event reservation schedules
removal of access due to misuse of communal resources
Members who pay additional monthly fees will have exclusive use of private rooms for residential (bedroom) or other (studio, office) purposes.
If we use a structure that allows it, members would be entitled to some share of the organization's assets if it dissolves. This may include the property itself if the ownership eventually passes to the MBC after other financial obligations are satisfied.
Every member will be responsible for
A monthly membership fee paid to the organization (exception: “comets” who pay a yearly membership fee)
A small number (2-5?) of weekly hours of communal labor. This will include some tasks commonly recognized as household chores, also some large and small scale project efforts. The budget for the use of this pool of labor will be decided by the leadership council, based in part on proposed projects and needs of the pods. Some of this time will be available to self-schedule and some will need to be done on a schedule set by whoever is organizing the labor in question.
Each pod will be responsible for accomplishing certain goals for the larger community. These goals will be proposed by the pod leaders each quarter, for approval by the leadership council. One pod might set a goal to build something, another to grow food, another to teach some classes, another to host some events, and another to contribute additional money or equipment to the group. Many pod goals will include a labor budget to utilize the communal labor pool from the organization responsibilities above (e.g. the garden pod may set goals that require the use of communal labor for gardening tasks).
Within each pod, member responsibilities will be set by the pod leader(s). Most such responsibilities will be focused around the goals the pod has committed to, such as maker pod members being responsible for operating the shops and teaching shop classes, garden pod members being responsible for leading garden chore time and organizing harvests, etc. Where feasible these responsibilities will be fairly distributed between members of the pod.
Our "comet" membership tier is exceptional. These are members who spend most of their year away from CoDwell, visiting for a short time, one or more times per year. While on site, they will have all the rights of a member with one private room, except that the room will not be dedicated to them year-round, and their vote will be weighted proportionally less. Their responsibilities will include either the usual share of communal "chore" labor and temporarily joining a pod that welcomes their contribution and participation, or a double share of communal labor.
There has been some demand for a tier between full time and comet, for nomads who use CoDwell as a home base, being present for weeks to months at a time, but less than half the year. We haven't laid plans for that yet, but likely will, and those plans would include tweaks to the rights and responsibilities listed above.