Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Neighborhood opposition

[Sherri Zann Rosenthal (76671.1561]

Eno Commons' rezoning had some opposition at the Planning Commisssion level. We
successfully addressed very similar objections to those raised against Marty's
group: lowered property values, increased traffic, etc.

The most important thing we did was spend a lot of time with people in the
neighborhood. Earlier in the process, I held a neighborhood meeting in a
neighbor's home. I answered all questions very frankly, even when I knew they
wouldn't like the answer. After the opposition at the Commission hearing, I went
to neighbors who'd sat with the "against" group, and listened. Traffic was the
big fear. I then spent a bunch of time trying to negotiate an alternative
entrance to our site. Though this effort ultimately failed, word about it got
around. I also followed up with the people who'd been most concerned about
increased traffic, letting them know why I wasn't able to wrangle another
access. 

I think this did two things: people in the neighborhood knew I took their
concerns seriously, and they knew any other developer coming in would likely
have to use their street for access, too. That our property was going to be
developed eventually was clear. The question became: do you want Eno Commons, or
an unknown conventional development?

I answered a lot of questions about lowered property values. My position on
appraised values is that appraisers use "comparables." The existing neighborhood
is large homes on large lots. Eno Commons will be much smaller homes on small
lots, but with a homeowner's assoc. holding quite a bit of land and facilities.
These properties are not comparable. Because of this and the visual buffering
between EC and the existing homes, we are unlikely to affect their appraised
values, or be used in any way by appraisers.

Finally, the weekend before the county commissioners' hearing on our rezoning,
another EC member and I went door to door in the neighborhood. We talked to
everyone who was home, answered questions, and got them to fill out a
questionaire. For people who weren't home, we left a placard with the
questionaire, saying we were sorry we'd miss them, and asking them to fill in
the questionaire. The questionaire had actually been mailed to each neighbor a
week before, and stated when we'd be in the neighborhood to collect it and
answer questions.

The questionaire was not at all objective! The purpose of the questionaire was
two-fold: first, to lead our future neighbors toward seeing the benefits to them
of having us as neighbors, compared to any other development on the property;
second, to amass some evidence that that the few people who showed up in
opposition at the hearing didn't represent the true attitude of the neighbors.
So, I asked five questions like: "Sherri has been available to answer community
questions and concerns," and "The Eno Commons idea of clustering homes to
preserve open land is a good one." 

The big surprise was how positively most people felt about EC. However, the
questionaire responses were ultimately not used at the hearing: no one showed up
in opposition! 

I hope some of these ideas help folks facing neighborhood opposition. Marty, I'm
sorry you're having a tough time of it. Best of luck. (Sorry this post is long.)

Sherri Zann Rosenthal,
Eno Commons CoHousing, Durham, NC
Where we have two new households in the last 3 weeks and are hunting for more,
as we hope to break ground in early fall.