Cohousing-L Mailing List: Dancing Rabbit

[Glen Orcutt (gorcutt]

Rachel,

I have been following your project a little bit through your homepage and I
am excited that you are looking for land.  We had to go through the rezoning
process in Chico for our cohousing project.  (I might recommend Butte County
as well for land prices are quite low and there is an alternative culture).  

Our rezoning process was with the City of Chico and not the unincorporated
county.  However, there was a high-profile project that was similar to what
you are talking about (i.e. a dense village of ~1000 residents).  They had
the land, rezoned then folded because the developers had a conflict of some
kind.  I don't know the details of what was involved, but I know the
contacts with the city, etc that could tell you the story.

My experience is that if you go in and talk with the right people in the
planning department and tell them what you want to do, they will tell you
how to do it.  That is their job after all.

Best of luck,

Glen Orcutt
Valley Oaks Village
Chico, CA  (Where 14 houses are framed and 9 almost dried in)