Cohousing-L Mailing List: NIMBY-ism & Opposition to Cohousing

[Judy (BAXTER%EPIHUB]

--Steve Mabley wrote:

Our project will be a clustered infill development on part of one of the last
farms in an upper middle-scale suburban community of single family homes.  We
will seek rezoning from "Agricultural" to "Planned Unit Development" at an
overall density roughly equivalent to the upper range of the surrounding
community.  
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Steve, you don't say how your community will be clustered.  My guess, based on
our neighbors, (we are also infill, on one of the last woodsy spots in our
neighborhood) is that your neighbors like having that open space next door. If
you are clustering your developing, and leaving ?lots, ?some, attractive open
space for all to look at , you may convince them (and truthfully, I think) that
you are doing better than the average developer who may/will come along.  They
presumably gobbled up all the other farms.  

Our neighbors really didn't buy that, at least the two closest to our
woods/ravine, (they wanted us to maintain their view, ).  Their developer had
wiped out much of the nice woods we had seen when we 1st saw the property.  But
they were unaware of that.  And in fact we are keeping most of the woods and
ravine, for us and for them.  But we did work things out - they didn't really
have a leg to stand on on that basis - the issue was use of an easement for
fire department vehicles, and that took a lot of redesigning to make work.

Judy

Judy Baxter, Monterey Cohousing Community, (MoCoCo)
Twin Cities Area, Minneapolis/St.Paul Minnesota
e-mail: baxter [at] epivax.epi.umn.edu