Stone Curves Co-Housing : Neighbors Creating Community

At Stone Curves, a sustainable natural desert landscape encircles forty-eight homes. Neighbors share a common house with kitchen, dining, meeting, exercise, arts and crafts, library, and play space. Grounds and garden, pool and playground are enjoyed and maintained by community members; chickens thrive in the community coop; the central courtyard and lawn invite gatherings, games, music, and all sorts of collaborative activities.

Here neighbors support neighbors. Sharing a cup of flour or a tool, offering a ride to the airport or to an appointment, a supermarket run, an extra hand for a task, all are routine in our community. During the pandemic, we have created a "Neighborly Fund" with donations to help residents weather short-term financial challenges. Neighbors can ask and be helped with money for necessities like food, COA fees, medications, utility bills, or other immediate needs in a private and anonymous way. Help is also available with financial planning and with navigating applications for government assistance.

Working Together

All the work that makes our community function is done by us, the members.  We join together in loosely organized teams, each focusing on a specific area.  The Green Team cares for our landscaping; the Cluck Team cares for our chickens; the Garden Team cares for our community garden; the Infrastructure Team makes sure our buildings remain in good shape; the Common House Team looks after the rooms in the Common House; the Membership Team welcomes new residents and coordinates social activities; the Pool Team maintains the pool and spa; the Financial and Legal Team, well, it does financial and legal stuff.  Every adult is expected to contribute five hours of work each month to one or more of these teams.

Eating Together

Eating together keeps us together.  Pre-pandemic, we enjoyed several community meals each month: a birthday potluck to celebrate that month's birthdays, a trip to a local restaurant just for Stone Cuves women, and a very informal "bring-your-own dinner," eaten in the patio of one or another of our five villages.  In addition, every once in a while someone or some group decides to cook a meal for the community, often a barbecue.  Or the people in one village invite everyone in another village to dinner.  Or an eating club springs up just for vegans or vegetarians.

For our 10th anniversary, a group of residents - headed by our own Kathy Olson - produced a beautiful cook book full of community pictures, wise sayings and excellent recipes. Read, bake and enjoy. Stone Curves Cookbook.

Governing Together

Like all cohousing communities, we are self-governed.  We meet regularly to discuss problems and to plan for the future.  We work at making our decisions by consensus.  Every member of the community, renter or owner, has an equal voice in decision making. 

Stone Curves in the News

Stone Curves Turns 10 with a Strong Sense of Community - March 21, 2015

Gabrielle Fimbres in The Arizona Daily Star on the occasion of Stone Curves' 10th Anniversary Celebration.

Tucson’s 'Cohousing' Neighborhoods: a Sense of Community - Oct. 1, 2016

Gabriella Rico in The Arizona Daily Star