Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: RE: [C-L]_Re:common house as public building

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

If you are legally organized as a condo,and 80% of cohousing is, then you
should question why you are are not treated the same as all the condos in
your area, assuming that is  to your benefit. If all condos in your area
have their multipurpose room designated as a public building then you are
doomed to that fate. However, be sure to assert that you are just building a
CONDO. This actually makes bldg departments job much easier, and its the
absolute truth. In the legal world, and to the bank, you are just another
condo, and  should be treated just the same as all the rest of them.

At Sharingwood we got into  some issues with the building department who
wanted us to do some unreasonable things. We asked, politely, can you help
us find examples  of other condos that have had to do these  things?  They
hemmed and hawed, then we jumped on them and said, look, we are just another
condo so don't discriminate against us. They backed off the unreasonable
requirements.

On your plans your commonhouse should be labeled just like every other condo
with whatever the local terminology is (multipurpose building is used in my
area.) If you make it different  than normal, it makes the bldg departments
job harder, and then they find reasons to make things harder for you than
they have to be. If its different, then they have to define it, make a
category for it, etc. Condos exist almost everywhere, they are well
understood. On paper, cohousing is just a condo with a big multi-purpose
building. This is OK. What's on these papers does not mean you can't be a
community, do meals, care about each other and work together in the ways you
want to. There are no condo police that hold you to the CCand R's against
your will.

I think it is sometimes a mistake to explain cohousing to them unless it is
to your advantage to do so. They don't care, don't need to know, and if
calling yourselves something other than a condo hurts you then doing so is
against your interests. You are a group of people  who joined together to
invest and build a condo.

Of course the cohousing developers and architects and other advocates would
say this is not the right approach, we should be educating these people, and
creating our own  rules and building codes just for cohousing. Well, as a
group that's your call.

Keep it simple as much as you can. Real Estate development is a HUGE burden
on your community, and it is probably not why your are doing this. You
choose where to spend your time.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood Condominium


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