In 2006 a group of friends organized the Pinnacle Project to build intergenerational, sustainable , mixed-income homes, using a clustered neighborhood design (cohousing). We still plan to build those homes, perhaps even with an assisted living component, but Lyme’s zoning does not, at least yet, permit this type of home building.
Although we can’t yet live here yet, Loch Lyme Lodge shareholders enjoy spending time in this beautiful place, whether walking or skiing the Carriage Trail, staying in a cabin, gardening, kayaking, canoeing, and swimming, or just reading in the shade. We host occasional meals together, sometimes as potlucks and sometimes prepared by the Lodge Chef. In the summer, you can find us eating ice cream from the kitchen window, listening to or making music around the fire by the pond, and spending a summer evening with family, friends, and Lodge guests.
We invite you to read the Spirit behind Pinnacle and our Vision Statement which express our shared goals. If you think you might be interested in becoming a member, please get in touch.
The Spirit Behind Pinnacle
Did you ever wish you had a big rambling house on a pond with fruit trees and gardens – a place you knew and loved and could always return to? Do you love gatherings with family and friends enjoying great food and stimulating conversation? Are you interested in reducing your carbon footprint and your living costs? Do you like living around people who reflect a mixed-age range? Do you want a home where you can raise your children? Age in community? Live in a place your children and grandchildren love to visit? Pinnacle Cohousing at Loch Lyme Lodge was formed to create private homes and shared spaces that will help us meet those dreams.
In 2006 we bought 120 acres on Post Pond in Lyme, NH, home to a long-established hospitality business. Loch Lyme Lodge and Cabins has a restaurant and commercial kitchen in the old farmhouse, rustic cabins, private waterfront on a lake, gardens, a lovely large barn and even clay tennis courts. Loch Lyme Lodge provides a vacation home to long-term guests including families who have been coming decade after decade. While Lyme’s zoning does not yet permit our plan for cohousing, our silver lining was finding the community that is Loch Lyme Lodge - the guests who return generation after generation. We operate the Lodge while continuing to work toward building cohousing on our land.
Pinnacle members are a mixed group. Some are in couples and others are not, some have children and some do not. Some have known each other since college days, others met here in the Upper Valley and still others were long-term guests who wanted to make the Lodge their own. We work in law, medicine, teaching, computing, retail and fund raising. Some enjoy singing while others write and direct on stage. Some are retired and some have young families. Some live here in the Upper Connecticut River Valley and some live farther away, in Massachusetts, Kansas, Maryland, and California.
Our members are passionate about many things: democracy and gardening, hiking and (grand)parenting, reading by the pond and cooking, making music and creating in wood, clay, and metal. When we are able to build homes, we anticipate having both our own pets and farm animals. We welcome well-behaved pets to the Lodge.
Why might you be interested in becoming a member?
-
Perhaps you’d like to enjoy the community and the land, enjoying visits and discounts...
-
Perhaps you’d like to purchase one of the Lodge cabins...
-
Perhaps you’d be interested in working with us to try again to persuade Lyme’s Planning Board and Lyme’s voters that that clustered mixed-income housing, with provision for aging at home is something they should support.
We invite you to read our Vision Statement which expresses our shared goals. If you think you might be interested in becoming a member, please get in touch.
Liz Ryan Cole, Rich Brown, Judy Klavans
Managers
Vision Statement
Members of Pinnacle agree that it is:
-
A place where friendships are important, the sense of community is strong and individual needs including that of privacy are respected.
-
A place where everyone meets their own regular cooperative work commitments as a way to help build and maintain community.
-
A place where members can visit or live, even into old age.
-
A place where the environment, aesthetics and natural beauty receive special consideration and where agreed upon ecologically sound design standards or guides for construction are known and followed.
-
A place where we will build on the existing land and physical structure.
-
A place where open discussion and democratic decision making about community issues is the norm.
-
A place where children are important people in the community.
-
A place where passion for making the world a better place is balanced with respect for informed and thoughtful discussion while difference of opinion is valued.
-
A place where diversity of background, lifestyle, career, work and family are encouraged and supported.
-
A place where great, locally grown and produced food is appreciated.
-
A place that will feel like “home” for members, even as they live in other places around the world.
All members must sign the Vision Statement upon joining.
Becoming a Member
Pinnacle is a membership group, created to preserve the land, buildings, gardens, and waterfront at Loch Lyme Lodge, and to support cohousing development. Loch Lyme Lodge, Inc. owns the land and cabins not yet sold, and all members are shareholders in Loch Lyme Lodge, Inc.
We value flexibility, the benefits of working cooperatively, and a willingness to contribute time and energy to the community as people’s interests and schedules allow. A sense of humor, and the ability to laugh at oneself is important. Members do not have to be each other’s “best friends”, but hey do have to be supportive of community among neighbors.
We look forward to creating a membership group diverse in age, race, gender and economic condition as we work to create a strong inter-generational community.
There are three things one must do to become a Pinnacle Member:
# 1. Be accepted by current members.
Our acceptance process requires at least one current member to recommend a proposed new member to the group. If no member already knows the proposed member well enough to make a recommendation, we invite the proposed member to spend time with us until we come to a point where a member can make a recommendation.
The existing members will discuss the proposed member and make a recommendation to the elected Managers, who make the final decision. The more people in the group who know the proposed member, the more informed the decision-making process will be, but each current member need not meet prospective members before we decide. This has not been an onerous process in the years we have been operating. It seems that people self-select and to this point each person who has asked to be a member has been welcomed to join.
# 2. Agree with our Vision Statement.
Members must agree with Pinnacle’s Vision Statement. New members demonstrate their agreement by signing a document making their agreement explicit before we accept a member’s initial capital contribution. We view a conscious decision to accept the vision statement as a commitment and like to make the time of signing a time for formal recognition and celebration of new members.
# 3. Make a capital contribution of $21,000.
Our expectation is that when members leave, their capital contribution will be returned to them, under conditions set out in the operating agreement. Should the membership ever decide to sell the property, each member’s capital contributions will be returned to them only once all the mortgages and outstanding obligations are paid. Our financial records are open to all members and serious potential members, so please ask if you have any questions.
This page is a summary of information found in the Loch Lyme Lodge, Inc. by-laws. In case of confusion or difference, the bylaws control.
Let Loch Lyme Lodge become your forever place - one your family can return to for generations to come. When you become a member, you join the group of friends and long-time Lodge guests who are members now. Membership allows you to take advantage of the property, swim or boat, garden, enjoy meals from the restaurant or bring your own picnic suppers to watch the sunset. Only members can own a cabin and eventually 20 of the cabins will belong to members.
While Loch Lyme Lodge will, of course, continue to be open to the public as a bed and breakfast and wedding venue, Members get the benefits of discounts and first dibs on cabin reservations.
Cabin Owners also receive other benefits; they own their own cabin (not a time share), share in profits from their cabin’s rentals, and avoid the hassle of opening and closing the cabins and maintaining the property.
Cabins range in price from $103,000 to $178,000.
Memberships and cabin sales allow us to protect the land and improve our barn and infrastructure. Both members and guests will benefit from the upgrades we're making, which include upgrading our electric/water/septic and making the barn a marvelous place to play music, hang out, and even do your laundry when you’re staying here.
For more information, read these materials, contact Liz Ryan Cole (802-785-4124) or Rich Brown (603-795-2525), or fill out the form below..
Own a Cabin - Overview
