Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Eugene Cohousing (Lynn Dixon)

[Kathryn McCamant (kmccamant]

Tricia, 

I must disagree with your assessment of the Oakleigh Meadow situation. I have 
seen a lot of neighborhood opposition in my 30 years of designing and 
developing cohousing and affordable housing communities. I work under the 
assumption that all new projects will have opposition. The only time I haven't 
seen opposition is when the proposed project was being built on a property that 
was a known drug den (Berkeley Cohousing). Having spent thousands of hours 
attempting to work with neighbors, I have come to the view that most of it is 
driven by fear, and is not very rational.  

Just as interesting, most all of the oppositions' concerns goes away after you 
move in. Living next to a construction site is never fun. But after the 
community moves in, cohousing neighbors are the most conscious neighbors you 
could ask for. I have a collection of letters collected by Marty Maskall from 
neighbors that originally opposed an adjacent cohousing project, and ended up 
really appreciating them as neighbors. One even had their daughter's wedding in 
the common house. 

So, I absolutely DO NOT think neighborhood opposition leads to long term 
resentments. Cohousers are great neighbors, and a plus to any neighborhood. And 
guess what?  Turns out having 2-story condos across the street doesn't destroy 
your way of life. 

Katie 
-- 
Kathryn McCamant, President
CoHousing Solutions
Nevada City, CA 95959
T.530.478.1970  C.916.798.4755

www.cohousing-solutions.com
 



On 8/6/18, 11:35 AM, "Cohousing-L on behalf of T G" 
<cohousing-l-bounces+kmccamant=cohousing-solutions.com [at] cohousing.org on 
behalf of triciamill9 [at] gmail.com> wrote:

    I guess the bottom line is that this sounds like a very horrible toxic
    environment for all that seems to offer no amicable solution. Not a place I
    would want to live out my retirement. I hope to find a community that is
    living in peace with its surroundings. Very bad energy surrounding this
    whole situation.
    
    Good to know before buying in.