Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Parking

[Jim Willits (dwn2erth]

i am confused, it seems to me to be a geometry problem not really a major
issue. I used to design school site plans and, of course, traffic free and
no street crossings for children to access play areas and open space areas
is a standard rule of thumb for all schools... co-housing would seem to
have the same requirements... it seems that if you take a modified "block"
of housing (not bound by a euclidian geometry) and sort of turn it inside
out conceptually and physically you accomplish all your goals, vehicular
access to one side and non street related space to the other. In a sense
reversed from the standard house front on the street approach.. front the
houses on the non street side opening to the common areas and pedestrian
areas. 

jim willits 
http//www.bioactive.com
http//willits [at] bioactive.com

----------
> From: Jim Snyder-Grant <jimsg [at] hotmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Parking
> Date: Friday, May 29, 1998 10:02 AM
> 
> The scoop on parking at New View (Acton MA):
> 
> We had a number of households who really wanted drive-up parking. There 
> were a variety of reasons, but most of these households are one or more 
> of: older, disabled, with multiple kids, or used to and comfortable with 
> drive up parking.
> 
> Our site is on a hill that has a steep section in the middle. Our main 
> driveway snakes up one side of the hill, and drains into parking lots 
> near the top and bottom of the hill. Houses at that side of the hill 
> have drive-up parking: this is about 1/2 of our houses.
> 
> The houses are arranged, roughly speaking, in 4 clusters. In all but one 
> of these clusters, the area in the middle of the clusters is carfree, 
> and the area between the clusters is car free, so that there is a big 
> pedestrian area for informal socializing, kids play, etc. 
> 
> The houses that are farther 
> 
> Sometimes I call us New View carhousing, because of all the time we 
> spent thinking about cars. 
> 
> 
> ______________________________________________________
> Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com