Cohousing-L Mailing List: Small town zoning struggle

[Daniel Greenberg (daniel]

Hello all,

I live at Sirius Community (http://www.siriuscommunity.org), which is 
mix of cohousing, intentional community, and ecovillage.  There is a 
struggle brewing in our small town of Shutesbury, MA around future 
zoning and land use that I was wondering if any of you might have 
some advice about.

The "sides" are the large land owners (long timers) vs. folks looking 
to avoid development in the future. The large land owners don't want 
any changes to planning and say they are losing value of their land. 
Others see development threatening our small town culture and 
understand the need for thoughtful change in plans to steer future 
development.  In particular, the new zoning proposals would allow for 
cohousing type communities to be developed that would concentrate 
dwellings while preserving open space.  More information about all of 
this is available at http://www.thoughtfulgrowth.info.

So, I guess my questions are:

Have any of you gone through a similar zoning struggle in your town? 
If so, what can you share that would help us in this process?
Does more restrictive zoning actually decrease value of large holdings?
Do cohousing communities typically increase/decrease surrounding land values?

Any and all advice and information would be most appreciated.  Take 
care and I look forward to hearing from you.

In community,
 - Daniel

--
Daniel Greenberg, Ph.D., Executive Director
LIVING ROUTES - STUDY ABROAD IN ECOVILLAGES
79 S. Pleasant St. #A5, Amherst, MA  01002
413-259-0025 phone; 413-259-1113 fax
http://www.LivingRoutes.org