Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: uses of common land

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

We evolved a map which identified
a) "adjacent commons" areas right by a person's lot that they might 
logically want to landscape and tend
b) "mini-commons" which seems to pertain to several nearby lots, and is 
more than one family might want to pay to fix up, but which might 
reasonably be developed in ways desired by the families living around it
 c) general commons

and for each category what sort of process would be best to ensure that 
any developments on the commons, initiated by individuals or small 
groups, are acceptable in terms of 
aesthetics, still being identifiable as commons and useable  by others, 
maintenance, hazards, permanence

Your site will be unique, but you can look at whether there are some 
identifiable zones which might be useful in determining who can do what 
where, and if they need approval by a Landscape Committee, or neighbors, 
or what. Once you have guidelines, you have moved beyond just reacting 
case by case, as John plants bamboo on it, and Jim puts out a trampoline, 
and Helga constructs a concrete wooly mammoth, and Martha piles 
construction salvage. 

Lynn Nadeau
RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend WA