Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: To subdivide or not to subdivide

[JoycePlath (JoycePlath]

Marsh Commons went through a significant number of contortions around similar
issues.  We own the land under our houses making us a zero lot line townhouse
PUD with open land owned incommon.  During plan check we discovered that we
had to have two hour fire walls, parapets. and a minimum  distance from a
property line of five feet for exit stairs(none of this is necessary if we
were a condominium owning just air space).  In order to comply we had to
redesign our entrance porches and stairs,  switch to stucco siding ,
eliminate roof overhangs, and eliminate some terrific south facing windows
that were on common walls.  Later, however, we discovered that our method of
ownership increased our appraised value, made it easier to get insuranc, It
also allowed us to circumvent the banks limit of one million in a single
construction loan by purchasing our individual lots before construction and
taking our individual construction loans.  
Good luck,
Joyce Plath in Arcata, California