I live in just such a community as the original poster described. A bunch of uspooled our cash and bought 240 (now 320) acres. We set aside a bunch of common
land including some wet land. The rest was subdivided and sold back to the members. That was 20 years ago. Most of us could barely raise the money to pay for our part of this place but now we are mostly prosperous. Our community is not
unique. There are many examples all over the world of similar communiites.
Our community is semi-rural but there are many urban cooperative communities as
well.
For more information on our community, check out a book titled "The Best
Investment--Land in a Loving Community" by Dave Felder. For info on
land cooperatives and co-housing, check out the co-ho forum on the well
(telnet to well.sf.ca.us or dial in via cis to system well> The well is
a commercial system and is not free. Be prepared to fork over your credit