Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing-L digest, Vol 1 #708 - 11 msgs

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

>to create a clear boundary between
>your property and public property and discourage your central  pathway from
>becoming a public side-walk?

Just to illustrate how each project is unique: 
At RoseWind Cohousing we designed our central pathway to BE a public 
walk. Our 9 acres (blocks) of land had earlier been platted in a grid, 
with 25-60 ft-wide street rights of way criss crossing it. In our Planned 
Unit Development re-plat, we vacated (erased) a lot of the unopened 
street rights of way that went through the center of the project. One 
factor in our arguments to be allowed to do so was that we found language 
in the city planning guidelines where non-motorized 
transportation/pedestrian ways were to be valued. So we said we were 
still offering public right of way, but of this other sort. 

Port Townsend has very little crime and vandalism, so having the 
neighbors coming through is not a concern that way: most here leave homes 
and cars unlocked, all over town. Bicycles have been some concern, 
though, as they come speeding down the hilly parts of the path and could 
cause an accident with a pedestrian. We also have seen kids use the 
concrete wheelchair ramp up to our long common-house porch, continuing to 
the other end of the porch where they "jumped" their bikes. Some new 
railings make that less inviting. 

Signage requests that dog walkers leash and scoop. With some success. 
Unaccompanied dogs are still a problem sometimes. 

We are near a middle school, and some of the children pass through. It's 
a pleasant alternative to walking on trafficked streets. 



Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend Washington (Victorian seaport, music, art, nature)
http://www.rosewind.org
http://www.ptguide.com

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