Cohousing-L Mailing List: Good News

[Judy (BAXTER%EPIHUB]

Well, I guess that this discussion is NOT on vacation, judging by my mail, so I
will see if this works.

Monterey Cohousing Community has *good news*!  We went before the City Council
on July 5 and got approval for our site plan.  It went very smoothly - no
comments at all from neighbors and lots of compliments from the 4 council
members who had visited with us the previous week.  We had sent information
packets to all of them and offered to meet with them - and our concilperson
(what a word) offered to coordinate a meeting and strongly suggested that we
meet with them in a group.  Their two concerns were - 

1-did we require any variances ? (alas - we had to say no, as we have made the
modifications necessary, tho reluctantly).  Our sense was they did not want to
defend variances.  It still rankles - but it is done.  We could have gone to
the Council with negative recommendations from the staff, the Planning
Commission, and the Zoning Appeals Board, but we weren't prepared to risk more
delay. This town is really picky, and has that reputation.

2.  What was our relationship with the neighbors?  We told them about our
liason with the nearest neighbors, and discussions about the easement and
issues around construction mess (all this was at the earlier discussion, not at
the official Council meeting).   And they were very supportive.

It felt great to have something so major to celebrate.

Now back to getting financing, looking at phasing construction, legal
documents, etc.

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