Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: zoning etc.

[Rob Sandelin (Exchange) (Robsan]

Zoning and planning issues and strategies:

Met with BOSS of planning dept. Once to orient to cohousing- BOSS came =
to most meetings about our project - somewhat unusual.  The fact that =
the BOSS was interested might have opened some doors maybe?
Found a sympathetic and interested staff person who became our liason to =
the mysteries of planning.  She sheparded our plans around, told us =
about upcoming changes, warned us about cranky engineering dept, etc.  =
THIS PERSON IS KEY.
Ran meetings with County with amazing (to them) efficientcy and =
openness.=20
Followed up phone or personal conversations with officials with a fax =
which states what, when and who discussed what and what conclusions came =
of it.  This creates a paper record for the files of those side =
conversations.
Praised staff people to the BOSS who were helpful. The BOSS then praised =
them later, in behalf of their efforts to help us.  The staff folks were =
pretty happy about this.
Sent flowers to staff people who were helpful.  This created a very =
amazing effect on the planning staff.  A couple dozen roses did =
wonderful things for us.  Three years later, they still know us as the =
folks who sent us flowers!
Asked a lot of questions about the why of things.  Why do the roads have =
to be 28 feet?  Once we understood the why, we found a way to negotiate =
to meet the why in another way.
The one time we really felt jerked around we set up a meeting, explained =
what happened and how we felt about it.  Amazingly they never had heard =
this before and changed some of their operations due to our very simple =
and direct feedback.

Overall came to realize in our locality, the planning dept. has many, =
many, many levels of ineffificient governmental backwardness, where =
people play politics, don't communicate well or with integrety, nor know =
about what other depts are doing, etc. Found that good honest =
communication, patience and a willingness to talk with people in =
meetings seemed to solve most our problems.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood