Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Assigned Parking?

[Stevenson/Bitner (lilbert]

We have had parking assigned since day one.  People chose their spots, 
with some coordinating help.  If you do that, and I* strongly* suggest 
that you do, make it clear that spaces are assigned to people, but not 
"owned" by them.  We have one spot per house,2 visitor spots,  and the 
rest have to park on the street.  I used to be the parking coordinator, 
and some unreasonables get to thinking that their favorite spot is theirs 
for life.  It will almost certainly be necessary to switch once in a 
while.  Reasons here have included: disability, cars that can't fit in 
some spots, new people, and rotating the covered and uncovered spots.  
(This is what I call a "clothesline issue".  We argued over the placement 
of the common clothesline for three weeks of meetings!  It is the inverse 
relationship of importance  to time spent on an issue symdrome.  Somehow, 
people choose some nitpicky thing to wrestle with when they feel out of 
control on the big issues-like moving in to cohousing.)

Yes, discuss it now, but not specifics, just principles, like # of spaces 
and whether they are accorded on household size or whatever.