Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: RE: Coho & LIFESTYLE CHANGES--> Sustainability?

[Stuart Staniford-Chen (stanifor]

Rob writes:
> 1. Its illegal to turn a single family residence into a multi-family 
> residence in our zoning area.  Of  course, that hasn't stopped some of 

I think what you mean is that you would need a variance to do it.  This is 
not necessarily impossible (depending on your local planners).  We have a 
house to which an apartment was added.  Kevin did it, and he obtained a 
variance from the city.  Did a nice job of solar design too.

> Lifestyle changes are possible ways to become more sustainable.  
> Gardening to raise more food is a lifestyle change.  But, if no one is 
> interested in doing all the work a community garden entails, then that 
> doesn't happen.  When you have a day job for 9 or 10 hours(required to 
> pay the mortgage), community responsibilities(meetings and community 
> dinner plus work parties on weekends)  and family responsibilities, 
> getting people to commit more time into "sustainable lifestyle" options 
> is pretty hard to do.

God forbid that we should, like, make *sacrifices* to be more 
sustainable - heavens no, we are too busy paying for our giant houses it 
seems.

Stuart.