Green Cottages

Green Cottages Blog on GreenCityBlueLake
Visit this site for regular updates on the progress of the project.

Cuyahoga Community Land Trust Green Cottages Site
Visit this site to learn more about the land trust, learn how to buy a Green Cottage, and to see more details about the homes.

Green Cottages: A Case Study
Presentation on the construction of the Green Cottages.

Environmental Health Watch's Affordable Green Housing Center is providing the Green Cottages project with assistance with green certifications and implentation of green construction specifications, creating homeowners manuals for the project, and sharing the green aspects of the project with the public.

Developed by the Cuyahoga Community Land Trust, the Green Cottages is a one-of-a-kind development, offering homeowners significant energy savings, healthy indoor environments, and accessible features. The project will meet Enterprise Green Communities standards, and will be the first affordable single-family development in Northeast Ohio to achieve LEED for Homes certification.

The Green Cottages will be permanently affordable homes that support the healthy mixed-income character of Cleveland’s near west side. Through the Land Trust, homeowners purchase the home at a substantially reduced price. When they sell, they agree to allow a portion of the increase in the value of the home to stay with the home in order to bring the sale price down for the next moderate-income buyer. Applicants need to meet minimum and maximum income eligibility requirements, which are based on family size. For example, the maximum eligible income is $34,800 for a one person household and $49,700 for a four person household.

The homes are universally designed, life-cycle homes that allow aging in place. They will include accessibility features such as ramped entrances to porches, and, in the three bedroom model, a first floor bedroom with bath. Buyers who need a fully accessible home can have the additional features they need added at no additional cost.

The cottage designs grew out of the Cleveland Green Building Coalition’s Emerging Designers initiative, which brought together young architects to learn about green design while applying what they learned to real projects. Additional project partners are Civic Builders, Cleveland EcoVillage, Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, Environmental Health Watch, Larsen Architects, and The Project Alliance. The project’s funders and supporters include the City of Cleveland Housing Trust Fund, Cleveland Action to Support Housing, Finance Fund, KeyBank, Ohio Housing Finance Agency, Ohio Housing Trust Fund, Village Capital Corporation, Your CFO Resource, Doty and Miller Architects, Enterprise Community Partners, and Home Depot Foundation.