Arlington, WA – The Rooted Northwest Agrivillage Preliminary Plat was approved by Snohomish County on December 11, 2024, inaugurating a novel model for preserving farmland and open space in high-growth areas while also allowing for much-needed housing.

When a 240-acre family dairy farm was at risk of being split for development, Rooted Northwest founders purchased the land to create a resilient intentional neighborhood paired with regenerative agriculture. Pioneering a new Rural Village Housing Demonstration Program Ordinance, the project keeps the underlying existing zoning density for 70 homes but clusters the homes more tightly than the County’s existing Rural Cluster Subdivision Ordinance would have allowed. This clustering protects more than 85% of the land, over 200 acres of the total 240 acres, for permanent farming, open space, and forest.

“At its heart, Rooted Northwest is a project seeking to preserve agricultural land,” says Dave Boehnlein, one of the community’s founders. “Can we build a cohousing neighborhood where people who support local agriculture come together with farmers to create a resilient and caring community life?”

Homeowners financially bring the neighborhood's larger mission of saving farmland and supporting local regenerative farmers to life. The housing is designed as two cohousing villages, each with its own community facilities complementing the private homes. The private homes range in size from 2-bedroom townhomes to 4-bedroom single-family homes, all designed for energy efficiency, healthy indoor air quality, and sustainability. The first phase of development will build 40 homes, with a plan to break ground in 2025. 

Rooted Northwest was founded by a group of people who believe there has to be another way to live, one that nurtures people, community, and the land. There are already twelve households committed to buying homes in the first village. Those home purchases are funding the land and development costs to launch the project in the Cascadia bioregion. To find out more about buying a home in this community, anyone can attend one of the virtual Information Sessions by signing up at www.rootednw.org.

“Rooted Northwest addresses so many of our current societal issues: saving farmland, helping new farmers get started, and creating housing that is both more socially and environmentally resilient. This model is the way people lived for centuries before our car-oriented development models took over.” says project cohousing consultant Katie McCamant, president of CoHousing Solutions. “Each of us can make a difference in how we want to see our world evolve in the choices we make for ourselves, whether that is the food we buy or the housing we purchase.”

Cohousing isn’t new to Washington State. There are already over 20 successful cohousing communities built here, some now over 30 years old. People are attracted to these neighborhoods because they offer a strong sense of community while providing the privacy of individually owned homes. Rooted Northwest is unique in its rural location, commitment to permaculture, and farmland preservation.

About Rooted Northwest

Rooted Northwest is an intentional community in Arlington, WA — a walkable rural cohousing neighborhood supporting on-site regenerative small farms. Invest in a stronger, more resilient future! Reserve a home to become part of a community built on shared values, meaningful work, everyday interaction, connection to nature, and participatory decision-making.

For more information about how to get involved in Rooted Northwest, visit www.rootednw.org

To learn more about cohousing, visit the Cohousing Association of the United States, a non-profit organization that supports this movement, www.cohousing.org.

Contact Information

[email protected]

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