Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: washrooms - 2 required in commonhouse?

[steve boylan (boylan]

Leslie,

You asked:

> This is quite a bit lighter as a topic than guns or burnt-out committee
> members, but our development permit is requiring that we have male and
> female washrooms in our common house, meaning we must have two accessible
> washrooms rather than the one we planned and think adequate.  This will
> cut into the space in a children's room that doesn't seem very large
> already.  Our project is in the early stages of being built and we are
> appealing this decision.  Just thought it might help to find out if this
> has come up in other projects.  If we can say, "no other cohousing common
> houses have gendered washrooms", it may strengthen our appeal.

First, it depends a lot on what the local rules are;  they vary from town
to town in Massachusetts, for example.  But a possible strategy for you
that I haven't seen anyone else mention would be to take a look at other
recently-built public buildings in your area, and see what THEY had to
build.

Here in Cambridge, Massachusetts, builders of commercial buildings must
build men's rooms and women's rooms, and must have handicapped accessible
bathrooms.  But it's okay to build a men's room and a women's room that
aren't accessible, and also build a non-gendered accessible bathroom.
(All subject, of course, to truly arcane rules based on total building
size, total occupancy, the size of each bathroom, the color of the tiles,
and who knows what all else ...)

Look at local schools, churches, mosques, government offices, and other
public buildings.  Did THEY have to build two accessible bathrooms?

                                - - Steve

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