Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: neighborhood opposition

[Scott Cowley (scowley]

In SLC, UT we had to go through a re-zone process.  We went to 3 neighborhood
council meetings where we were opposed by the leadership and organized neighbors
at each one.
Then, the day we went to the city planning council, the incoming neighborhood 
council
president sent a nasty letter full of lies to them.  I heard about this, took 
time off work, and 
hand delivered a counter letter.
After passing the council unanimously, with the comment that "Any community
would kill for this project", we went to the city-wide council hearing.  Here 
we were
postponed for months and then, through a combination of bureaucratic rule 
maneuvering,
and incompetence by the neighborhood council president, we got passed.
        What saved us was 1) approaching the mayor, planning dept. director,  
and
city councilors individually well in advance of need to present our case for 
cohousing and our 
particular project.
2)  Working with those assigned to us by the planning department.
3)  Showing how ridiculous the arguments against having such a development 
given the
inevitability of development there, were.  And accent the advantages and 
problem solutions.
4)  Hiring professional help (architects) to prepare a professional plan to 
show.
5)  Identifying and working with progressive people in the neighborhood.
6) Having a couple of open-houses on the site for neighbors invited by leaflets.
  
Good Luck.  Soften up the ground first !!!