Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: zoning etc.

[Collaborative Housing Society (cohosoc]

I second Rob's experiences, especially with regard to communication.  I
operate under the assumption that most planners went into the business
because they really cared about the built environment, but that general
bureaucracy, etc. has tended to make a lot of them forget this.  Having a
sincerely committed RESIDENT group showing up asking for their help, input,
advice, etc. is a such rare (but *generally* very welcome) change of pace
that in their shock and amazement, they tend to be very accomodating.

One way we helped open doors in this regard was by holding a conference -
"Planning Cohousing" - supposedly to discuss and produce a guidebook to help
us neophyte developers understand the planning process - copies are
available for a nominal fee upon request.  The real benefit, however, was
that if any one group had plopped their wacky proposals down on some
planners table, it would have tended to put them into the standard us & them
mode, adversarial, "we can't do that", etc.  By meeting in a neutral forum,
just to kick a few ideas around, it introduced the concept to planners, and
actually got a few of them quite excited about the idea - peer pressure
works wonders.

I do have some reports generated from all this activity that might help your
studies, particularly on attitudes and preconceptions - for example, most
planners strongly suggested we avoid creating a new category of housing for
cohousing - too many red flags get raised.  They tended to suggest a
"stealth" approach. . .

Russell Mawby
Collaborative Housing Society - Toronto
cohosoc [at] web.apc.org