Cohousing-L Mailing List: "Design Review" - making changes to Common Areas

[Mayhew Seavey (mayhew650]

Hello from Hager Homestead, the first senior cohousing community in New 
England!

We started moving in last February and expect to be complete by 
September(ish).  Predictably, people are ready to make changes to their 
units and the spaces around them.  We are a little different from other 
communities in that we have 7 units that are standalone duplexes and a 
triplex with open space around them, and the other 19 units in a 
three-story building where only the ground floor has any open space.

We have created a helping circle (we use sociocracy as our governance) 
to research how other communities handle requests from members to make 
changes to common areas, both the structures themselves (walls, doors, 
porches, patios, balconies) and the grounds around them (gardens).

The list of questions that we generated is:

    Do they have written guidelines?
    Do they have a team or circle to oversee the guidelines?
    What is the scope of their oversight?
    What standards/guidelines do they have? How were they developed?
    What process was used to get agreement from the community?
    Where does design review “live” in their organization?
    How are members selected?
    What enforcement power does the team/circle have?

We'd be particularly interested in any written manuals or other 
documents that you could share with us.

Mayhew Seavey
Hager Homestead Cohousing
Littleton, MA


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