Solterra is a cohousing community in Durham, North Carolina.

We:
  • Care about our neighbors
  • Care about our environment and land
  • Make decisions on consensus
  • Welcome diversity
  • Do lots of things together (cook, eat, play games, watch movies, read books, garden, and more)
  • Are Multi-generational (age spans from 0 to 87)
  • Try to help each other and be a strong community

Feel free to visit us! We love sharing our community and think there should be more cohousing communities everywhere! 

If you would like to schedule a visit, or just have questions, please send an email to [email protected]

If you are interested in houses for sale or rent, please send an email to [email protected]​.
Solterra is cohousing with a difference. Most of our homes are single-family stand-alone dwellings which have been individually planned by the owners and their designers. Each house is unique and caters to the lifestyle of its residents. An Architectural Review Board oversees placement on the site as well as other aspects of exteriors, but owners have wide latitude in the kind of house they build. There is a strong emphasis on passive solar design, and placement of houses is such that no one obstructs their neighbors access to solar energy.
 
There are 37 families in residence.  Each member family owns a deeded lot, and a share of the common land. Houses range in size from about 1300 s.f. to 3200 s.f. 
 
Every  house has direct car access from a road that surrounds the developed area of the property. The uses are arranged in three groupings with each having access to a footpath that connects all the houses    and    the    common    spaces   through  the meadows and woods. The common areas include play spaces, picnic tables, a tree house, swings, a Common House and a large organic garden  we call the garden of eatin'. Last summer was a highly successful year for our organic gardens.

Solterra is a diverse community with respect to age, ethnicity,  religion and  lifestyle. All decision are made through a collaborative process involving  monthly community meetings and consensus decision-making. Four committees, in addition to the Board,  prepare the groundwork for these decisions, organized around the common house,  common lands, architectural review and social activities. The community is only as good as its members. Thus it is incumbent on everyone to contribute. Once a  month we have a community workday in order to maintain the common house and the  community lands.