Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: question about zoning

[Raines Cohen (rc3-coho-L]

Erika -

Changing use of a property is a complex question, different for every  
country, state and city. Oakland, California happens to be a city  
with (relatively) strong protections for tenants, expressed in the  
law in the form of restrictions on what property owners/landlords can  
do. A local property attorney is highly recommended, given the  
potential costs down the road of discovering something you hadn't  
anticipated. Landlords

As you've identified, there are legal restrictions on converting  
rental apartments into condominiums. You should also look into the  
restrictions on evictions if you have existing tenants renting the  
property. And also into the pitfalls of TICs, and the related issues  
of financing... although there are now some TIC loans that are  
seperable, historically TICs make you dependent on the credit of all  
participants, and requires a full refinance for all partners if any  
TIC share is sold.

You may find more answers to your question in our regional umbrella  
group, East Bay Cohousing (EBCOHO) - we have more cohousing in  
Oakland than any other city in the U.S., in no small part due to  
"retrofit" small cohousing projects like Temescal Creek cohousing,  
Triple Point, Fruitvale Cohousing, Mariposa Grove, and now two new- 
build projects in the Temescal (North Oakland) neighborhood, on top  
of the new-build Temescal Commons cohousing and Swan's Market  
Cohousing (don't call it Swan's Way!), not to mention Berkeley and  
Doyle Street within a mile of the city limits.

Raines

On Sep 12, 2006, at 9:44 PM, ETSBCA [at] cs.com wrote:
>  if one converts an apartment building into co-housing (like i'm  
> doing in
> oakland) ,  has there ever been an issue with zoning, by the city?   
> the ownership
> will be by Tenants-in Common because converting to condos is not  
> allowed in
> oakland for more than 4 units.