Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Re: Univesal design and Co-housing

[Kay Argyle (argyle]

> Is there any downside to having roll-in entrances to all
> the units?

If the contractor pays the usual attention to grade (that is, none at all):
Oh my, yes.

As background:  In Utah, most precipitation (90%?) falls during the winter
as snow.

Twenty years ago, in the spring of '83, a cool spring slowed the snow melt,
then the sudden onset of 90- to 100-degree summer weather brought it all
down out of the mountains at once, a not-uncommon transition -- Utah doesn't
have spring, it has three months in which it can't decide whether it's
winter or summer, so it alternates snow and the high 80s.  All the streams
overflowed, and State Street (the main drag through downtown Salt Lake)
became a diversion canal with walls of sandbags.

This followed a couple of wet years, and the Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake
were both at record high levels.  Hastily built dikes kept Interstate 15
passable, but (for instance) the newly rebuilt Saltair resort, the Union
Pacific causeway across the Great Salt Lake, and Provo's golf course all
went underwater. The state bought huge pumps to move water from the Great
Salt Lake onto the Salt Flats, to reduce flooding in all the subdivisions
that had been built in dry years.  Keep in mind this isn't ordinary water,
it's salt water so concentrated nothing but brine shrimp can survive in
it -- thousands of trees along the shores died, and the bird refuges (a
major stopover on the western migratory flyway) were badly damaged.

So, with that history -- we are in a flood plain between the Jordan River,
half a mile away (hardly more than a large irrigation ditch by some states'
standards, but with heavy seasonal flow), and a surplus canal used to divert
water when the Jordan gets too high, across the street.  Even in drought
years, both run very full in spring. Despite this location, the main floor
in most units is only a couple of inches above the surrounding land, and in
some units (like mine) it is _below_ grade.  This is not exactly a
comforting state of affairs.  In twenty years the lakes went from record
highs to record lows -- what's to keep the yoyo from coming back up?

Kay

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