Cohousing-L Mailing List: language or experience help needed to persuade Planning Board that 6 unit max per building

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Francoise Paradis <feparadis48 [at] yahoo.com>
is the author of the message below.  It was posted by
Fred, the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
after deleting quoted digest and restoring subject.

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Hi Liz,

The zoning ordinances usually limit multi-family dwellings to six for fire
protection. I believe the limit of six is the standard across the
country. You have to have a firewall every three units or have
sprinklers. Rural towns don't want high rises or catastrophic fires.

At Greensward Hamlet in Maine, we had planned to build five buildings of
four units each but recently changed it to four buildings of five units to
lower the cost. To modify zoning ordinances is a two-year process.

Francoise
http://www.greenswardhamlet.com