RE: Cars per unit
From: Faria, Sheryl (sheryl.fariaeds.com)
Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 16:56:01 -0600 (MDT)
Ditto here -- don't do it.

The then-members of Pleasant Hill Cohousing (SF Bay Area, CA) also felt that
they would need less parking than that generally required in our area (I
think it's somewhere between 1.5 and 2 spaces per unit), and went through
the formal process to get a variance. With only 2.2 acres for our 32 units,
the space lost to all that parking would have been significant.

About a year after move-in, parking scarcity is an ongoing issue. 

In addition to your members' cars (which they may or may not get rid of),
don't forget about guests, friends and family, children that eventually
reach driving age (so may have cars, and visiting friends with cars),
occasional temporary residents, and possible events held in your common
house -- and of course the fact that your membership will surely change
before move-in. We don't know exactly how much parking influenced some
prospective members' decisions not to join, but it was an issue for some
people.

Our numbers -- 
units:            32
adult owners:     47
other adults:      3 (renters, partners, etc.)
parking spots:    45 (including garages, carports, and uncovered parking)
cars:             44

Sheryl Faria 
Pleasant Hill Cohousing
(eastern San Francisco Bay Area)
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Gary Kent [mailto:garykent [at] uniserve.com]
Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 7:02 AM
To: Coho list serv
Subject: [C-L]_Cars per unit


The Roberts Creek Cohousing Project (south western B.C. Canada) is in the
first stages of zoning amendment application.  We are asking to have our
parking area reduced to 1.5 parking stalls per unit.  We have been advised
by the planning department that:
"unless supported by a detailed investigation of potential vehicle use, the
number and size of parking stalls should be allocated in accordance with
existing provisions of the zoning"  (two parking stalls per unit).

As we will are planning on 30 units this seems ridiculous for us to dedicate
so much land to 60 parking stalls.  We have the space (20 acres), however we
are trying very hard to limit our footprint.

Our present 13 equity members have a total of 12 cars (average per unit of
.9).

My sense is that this low ratio of cars to unit is fairly typical of
Cohousing communities.
We are gathering information to support our application to reduce the
parking.

We would really appreciate it If you have the time to gather information for
a very basic car : unit ratio in your community and send it to me off line.
I will post the results after I have compiled them.

Thank you.
Stacia Leech - e-mail address: garykent [at] uniserve.com


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