Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: being friendly without being a public street

[Elizabeth Stevenson (tamgoddess]

Kay,

I think I remember discussing Wasatch Commons at the last conference?? WE
have a similar situation, if a much smaller site. We have an alley that runs
through our property, and we have signs that say "Welcome to Southside Park
Cohousing. Please walk your bikes" or something to that effect. On one end
of the alley, the sign is down because it fell apart after so many years. We
have lattice between the duplex houses on the street to discourage walking
off the paths.

More importantly, we have removable metal fences that stretch across the
alley to prevent cars, but not people, from going through. We had some near
misses before that. There are swinging gates on the fences so that
pedestrians can go through. These fences are mounted on big round poles
(bollards) that go down into metal tubes in the ground about two feet. I
would suggest some form of removable barrier such as this to prevent cars
from going through, but that emergency vehicles can go through easily once
removed. We consulted with the FD on this.

This is not something which can be put up and forgotten. The fence requires
maintenance, and the neighbors do, too. we are having a problem with new
neighbors who think it's okay for their kids to ride their bikes in the
alley, and who park a big truck there, too. We're annoyed by the truck and
afraid for the kids (the alley is also our egress and parking lot). We're
working on the situation, although we may have to just call the cops and
start ticketing the truck. Some people are working on inviting them to
dinner and/or writing them a letter. I favor the more direct approach, but
I've already spoken with the mother, and the kids remain in danger from our
cars, so I think she doesn't give a s--t.

we gave up on keeping people from going through our property, but we are in
an urban area, and it would only be feasible with complete fences all the
way around. In addition to being costly, it's not what most of us want. It's
a trade-off. But we do know most of our neighbors, and a true stranger is
likely to be asked "can I help you find someone?"

Sorry for any typos. My fingers don't work well today.

-- 
Liz Stevenson
Southside Park Cohousing
Sacramento, California
tamgoddess [at] attbi.com


> From: "Kay Argyle" <argyle [at] mines.utah.edu>
> Reply-To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 11:45:41 -0700
> To: "cohousing-L" <cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org>
> Cc: "Vicky Wason" <vlwason [at] hotmail.com>
> Subject: [C-L]_being friendly without being a public street
> 
> A neighbor asked me to post this for our community. -- Kay
> 
> Could other groups describe what kind of signs have been put up around your
> property or other structures or plants to create a clear boundary between
> your property and public property and discourage your central  pathway from
> becoming a public side-walk?
> 
> Wasatch Commons is getting new neighbors.  26 new homes are being built
> across the street.  We were on a dead-end road with only one other house.
> We will now have 26 new neighbors, and the dead-end road has been opened to
> through traffic.  We are fairly urban and want to define our borders without
> erecting a 10-foot fence around our place.  We have no fences around our 5
> acres, which has not been a problem in  the past, but recently we have had 2
> cars (one a pizza delivery person and another a police car) try to drive
> down our central path!  We will probably construct a sign that says Wasatch
> Commons.  Could other groups describe their signs and what makes them
> attractive and yet effective.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Vicky
> Wasatch Commons
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list
> Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
> http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l

_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l