Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Re: Parking usage in cohousing?

[aamato (aamato]

Takoma Village in Washington, DC is an urban community with 43 units, located 2
blocks from a DC Metro subway stop.    We have one space per unit in an enclosed
parking lot, and there is on the street parking for guests. We have about 5
units that don't have cars (this has been increasing--it was only 1 upon move-in
5 years ago) and a handful of units that have 2 cars (mostly those with
children).  Some of these rent spaces from the non-owning members.  Others leave
their second cars on the street.

So I think the number of spaces depends on a number of factors:
- proximity to easy public transportation
- number of families with children
- whether on--street Parking is available
- useful stores within walking distance

Hope this is helpful.
Anna Amato
TVC-DC


                                                                                
             Evdavwes                                                           
                                                                                
             10/04/2005                                                      To 
             06:56 AM                cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org             
     
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Westwood Cohousing, in Asheville, NC (_www.westwoodcohousing.com_
(http://www.westwoodcohousing.com) ) has 50  spaces for 25 units.  We were
required by
local zoning codes to have 2  spaces per unit.  We built 10 of those spaces so
they are less accessible,  stacked behind other spaces, anticipating that many
would not need two  spaces.

In practice the 40 accessible spaces have provided for not quite enough
parking.  Currently in those 40 spaces are about 35 regular cars/trucks, 5
spaces
left over for visitors/customers and loading (not really enough),  and 2
motorcycles that get slipped in between the cracks.  In the  back-row
inaccessible
spaces there are two less-used cars (and there has been a  trailer).

One unit has no car, three units have had three cars, and the rest are  about
evenly split between one and two cars.

We didn't anticipate that some of our members would want to have even a
smaller ecological footprint than had been intended for them, in that they have

wanted to share their already small houses with adult roommates (mostly to be
able to afford to live here).  We have ended up with a few extra cars  because
of this.

Best,  David Clements

In a message dated 10/4/2005 6:16:57 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org writes:

Can any  urban coho communities supply me with statistics on how many
parking spaces  per unit they are actually using.  1 to 1? 80% to 1? etc.

Martin  Henner
henner [at] impartial.com





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David Clements, Evan  Richardson, Wesley Clements, Lila Richardson
43 Vermont Court,  #G24
Asheville, NC 28806
828-285-0601
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