By JOHN SKIPPER, Globe Gazette
Dick Smith knows why Mason City’s new senior citizen housing development is called Village Cooperative.
“It really is like a village,” said Smith, one of many residents giving tours during an open house Wednesday at the recently-opened complex in the Pebble Creek area of southwest Mason City.
“It is so comfortable. And everything’s here for you — community room, club room, woodworking shop, car wash, heated garage and great sociability. It’s all here.”
Oscar Hjelle and his wife, Joanne, said they love the friendly atmosphere and the conveniences provided.
“They even supply the rags in the car wash,” said Oscar with a laugh.
Verlyle McLaughlin also commented on the friendly surroundings.
“Sometimes we have a coffee time at 3, sometimes we have it at 6,” he said. “There’s no paid social director. Ron Stroup (another resident) usually just puts it together.”
Village Cooperative has 50 units and 46 are filled, said Mary Beth Greenan, sales manager.
Tenants buy shares in the coop for between $34,000 and $62,000, depending on the size of the unit. The smallest units are 875 square feet.
Tenants also pay a monthly fee ranging from $720 to $1,100 that includes the tenant’s portion of the overall mortgage and taxes, sewer, water and trash services and several other amenities.
Appliances are provided but tenants pay their own utility bills which average $30 to $65 a month.
Keith Jans, president of Real Estate Equities, St. Paul, Minn., the parent company for Village Cooperative, and Shane Wright, project manager for the construction, were both on hand Wednesday, greeting the hundreds of visitors who came through.
The commons area has a community room with kitchen, a club room, guest suite, reading areas, planting areas, woodworking shop, fitness center, outdoor deck with barbecue area and walking paths.
The place had a history before the first spade of dirt was turned.
The Pebble Creek Homeowners Association filed three lawsuits in an attempt to block construction. Its objections for the most part concerned the aesthetics of a large housing complex near a neighborhood of single-family dwellings.
In 2007 the assocation tried unsuccessfully to get injunctions to stop construction, claiming Real Estate Equities filed a building application too soon after a previous one had been denied.
In 2008, the association filed suit against the city, claiming the city allowed illegal “spot zoning” for the development. That case was dismissed.
The only people holding court Wednesday were the Village Cooperative residents as they greeted visitors, told them about their new homes and gave them guided tours.