Cohousing-L Mailing List: Rezoing and dancing rabbits

[TYLERRANDY (TYLERRANDY]

Re:  Rezoning, permits, and dancing rabbits.

Rachel Freifelder, in a 1-21-96 post, asked about getting through the
approval process for a new ecological village.

As a developer of innovative new communities, I have been through the
rezoning process many times.  You particular village sounds interesting, I'm
working on a very similar concept.  

I think you have already discovered the dilemma, the catch 22.  If you want
to find reasonably priced land in a beautiful semi-rural natural setting,
there is a good chance that you will find minimum parcel sizes of 40 to 80
acres.  Here is Oregon, which is supposed to have progressive land use laws,
you would need to be within an Urban Growth Boundary in order to achieve any
significant density, or even to do some clustering at a low density.
 Virtually all the large parcels within the Urban Growth Boundaries have
already been developed.  You could consider starting a new city, and creating
your own zoning and planning, and school system, or finding a very small town
where you could create some flexibility.  Do California laws allow new towns?
 Oregon has make it nearly impossible to create new towns after a bad
experience with Rajneech (sp?) and the town of Antelope.

I am investigating land use laws in Idaho and Montana, which in some cases
have no zoning , but do have subdivision regulations, and hearing processes
which give neighbors an opportunity to have input into proposed developments.

Good luck with you village.

I couldn't get your home page to load, Critical Error.  I'll try again.

In peace,

Randy Tyler
Community Development Collaborative
TylerRandy [at] aol.com