Cohousing-L Mailing List: Public or Private? [was gun ownership/possession in co-housing

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Sep 20, 2022, at 2:52 PM, Elizabeth Magill <pastorlizm [at] gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> We have not asked if a policy is enforceable. I'm going to start doing that!
> 
> Here is our gun policy.
> https://mosaic-commons.org/guns

On several occasions I have discovered that the definition of “private” and 
“public” in relation to condominiums is a legal grey area. Animal Control put 
it most clearly: The common areas are public because they are not privately 
owned. If the Association wants dogs to be allowed to run free on common land, 
the Association will have to assume responsibility for any harm done by dogs 
running free. The owner of the dog is not the owner of that space.

It has been unclear whether we fall under the public playground requirements, 
for example. I assume we do  but others question this. We never found out 
because the rules for public playgrounds were felt to be reasonable and we 
followed them.

In each new case, the question comes up again. I resolve it for myself by 
thinking about very large condos. The distinctions become clearer.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org