Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: kitchen inspectors

[David Hungerford (dghungerford]

On Fri, 16 Dec 1994, Rob Sandelin wrote:
> 
> PS - I am pretty sure we have never told the County, nor do we intend 
> to, that we actually use this kitchen to serve food for the community 
> on a regular basis.  They see our commonhouse as a condo clubhouse for 
> parties and such.  Much easier to let them believe that.  The last 
> thing we want is weekly health dept. inspections or some other crap. 
> Sorry you have to be in that mess, hope it turns out.

Our experience at Muir Commons (thousands of dollars wasted on a huge 
fire-suppression vent hood exactly like the one(NOT smaller) used in a steak 
restaurant I once waited tables in; thousands on fire doors that close 
when the alarm goes off, commercial grease traps designed for rendering 
plants, and so forth) confirms this warning.  While a good general 
principle for living IN cohousing is to be upfront, honest, 
straightforward, etc. when dealing with people whose job it is to make 
sure THEY don't get sued later, playing close to the vest is a much 
better strategy.  "Yes, we're a condo with expanded facilities.  And 
we'll get together for meals in the clubhouse. We're already getting 
together for regular pot-lucks"  creates much less terror for a city 
inspector than "we're modeling ourselves after the Danish bofoekeskeller 
(sp?), we want to eat together every day."

--David Hungerford
Muir Commons