Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: City and municipal zoning and laws.

[Brian Bartholomew (bartholomew.brian]

> And how about retro-fit cohousing?  Do local laws come into play there?

In my opinion, evolving an existing condominium into a supper club and
then fictive kinship as your now-friends need help is far more
economical in dollar price and environmental impact; and it's ten
years faster.  There are plenty of buildings already.

As much as I love love love the insights in _A Pattern Language:
Towns, Buildings, Construction_, I still don't think the shape of the
architecture is the largest factor of coho...because I still see
fictive kinships in living shapes which the residents constantly chafe
against.  Instead, perhaps the "journey" and the preparation for the
"journey" is how humans commit and adapt.  That's what the coho
development process is really doing.

> I know little about it but it seems crucial to scaling the movement...

As far as I can tell, coho-like arrangements where elders decide to
help themselves are the only way boomers are going to afford assisted
living.  So it's going to happen everywhere for all retirees.  Be
nicer if people can be prepared for it.

> and would love to see this covered as well

I'd suggest a survey format: 'Here are ten possible arrangements for
clustered housing.  Type 1 is banned by this group of laws, type 2 by
that group of laws...type 10 is permitted, but made twice as expensive
by these sidewalks/streetlights laws, and several times more because
it all must be built out to completion in 2 years.'  Then, groups that
want one of the alternatives know to present themselves for permitting
as a trailer park or RV campground for snowbirds.

Brian