Cohousing-L Mailing List: site selection musings

[Patty M Gourley (pattymara]

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Patty M Gourley <pattymara [at] juno.com>
To: Berrins [at] aol.com
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 09:16:52 -0800
Subject: Re: Seniority--Pros and Cons
Message-ID: <20001031.091653.-243533.2.pattymara [at] juno.com>

Hello List,
Roger Berman posted:

> Also, you may find, as John Ryan at Pioneer warned us, that after
living 
> there awhile you would have picked a different site had you known x, y
or z.  
> Since you won't know this in advance, don't get too worked up about
picking a 
> site.  Find a site selection process, use it and move on. 

Right on, Roger!  At Tierra Nueva (central CA coast) now over two years
into living here, I can say that the most important part of site
selection, in my opinion, is not the view (one of our most expensive lot
premiums) or access to the common house or parking.  The most important
element to me is who are my immediate neighbors?  On our five acre site,
a family with toddlers who lives at the extreme northern edge feels very
isolated surrounded by single seniors and a non-participatory busy
doctor.  All the other families with small ones live on the southern
edge.  That's where all the action is, for both the kids and the moms.  

We have a peculiar dynamic here that we did not foresee. Most of the
bigger, more expensive homes (3 and 4 bedroom duplexes and most of the
stand alones) are located to the north of the common house.  Of the
eleven homes, 8 are owned by retired seniors.  3 by families, only one
with toddlers.  The mood is serene, almost eerie in its quiet and lack of
interaction.  

To the south of the common house there are 13 homes, mostly duplexes, and
most of the small, single story units.    8 of the 13 homes have families
with small children.  It is awash with kids, kids' toys, group play,
interaction and shared child care.  This is where all the action is.  For
the few seniors who live in "kidland" it has been difficult (noise and
clutter issues).  

We did not anticipate this north/south division.  I wonder if we could
have paid more attention to the human premiums of who you live by.  We
were so focused on what our individual houses would have or not have. 
And all along, it's about people.  With so many of our members coming
aboard at different times, it would have been impossible, and probably
not advisable to socially engineer who lives by who...but it does make me
wonder why we were so blindsided.    

For all of the rhetoric that spouts about delegating cars to the
periphery to create a pedestrian friendly site (all good things) what
seems to create the most definite dynamic  of interaction is:  what path
do I take to get to and from my car?  I didn't foresee this one either.  

Site selection is so much more complex when human interaction is factored
into the decision.  

coheartedly,
Patty Mara Gourley
Tierra Nueva Cohousing, central CA coast, where the monarch butterflies
have arrived from the pacific northwest, and the haunted house in the
common house is shrouded with mystery, and the jack o'lanterns are
leering.  Our Day of the Dead altars go up on Wednesday, and a third
member has passed on to the other side.  You will shine bright on our
altars, Carol.

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