Re: private vs. public space
From: Berrins (Berrinsaol.com)
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 22:29:02 -0700 (MST)
In a message dated 3/11/01 11:31:31 PM, JMAZO [at] crocker.com writes:

<< As our first spring approaches, with many of us eager to begin landscaping
around our houses, we're grappling with who makes decisions about which
pieces of land, the individual household or the community.  For example,
should the kids feel free to play in any back yard since it's all community
property?    Must I have grass around my house if I prefer groundcover and
am willing to plant and maintain it?  Can I ask people to stop taking a
shortcut from the parking lot that passes my house?  Am I responsible for a
certain number of square feet around my house?  Can I plant shrubs to
screen off a private place behind my house?

I'm not looking for answers to these specific questions, but rather for
your approaches to the land use issues that are inherent to cohousing.  Any
and all ideas and experiences will be much appreciated.  Thanks. >>

Juli, Land/Garden is very aware that these issues need to be dealt with asap. 
 It has been the focus of several of our last meetings.  It was the purpose 
behind the second half of the meeting last Saturday.  The meeting was 
designed as the next step in the process to get feedback from the community 
(the first being the brainstorming session we had awhile ago) so Land/Garden 
could begin putting together some guidelines re: land use and public vs. 
privacy issues.  I wasn't able to be there (I had to work) but was told that 
the meeting went well.

We haven't outlined all the process steps we're using because, well, we're 
kind of working it out as we go along.  But each step we've taken is making 
the way we need go more clear.  Our next step is to take what we've garnered 
from the past meetings and start the process of getting some rules and regs 
together.  You should expect to see the first ideas within a general meeting 
or two. 

That said, because the community has a wide variety of opinions on how public 
vs private spaces should be, this issue could take a while to resolve.  
Hopefully not, but we will need creativity, patience and compromise from the 
the more extreme among us to work things out.  Because of this complexity, I 
can't promise we will have a list of specific guidelines in time for spring 
planting - definitely not in 8 days, when Spring officially begins! 

This is a large issue and will affect us all deeply for years to come.  We 
don't want to rush a large, complex policy through because people are anxious 
to plant this Spring.  We could consider another stop gap, temporarly 
proposal like we did last fall.  But even if we don't get something done in 
time for spring planting (and it won't be for lack of trying!), there will 
still be the rest of the warm weather this year and many more springs to 
come.  This is my plea for us all to focus on the big picture.



To put it more succinctly- we're workin' on it!

    -Roger
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