Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: a strategy for affordability

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On May 24, 2010, at 11:40 PM, bb [at] stat.ufl.edu wrote:

> Anyone who claims the legal red tape is not a big deal should be able
> to come up with the names of 100 jurisdictions that currently allow
> small homes cheaply, with sufficient due diligence to satisfy both a
> homebuilder and a mortgage lender.

My informed guess is that 3 of every 4 cohousing communities had to  
get zoning exceptions or rezoning. The only way to do it is to have a  
good plan and to understand what a specific zoning board does or does  
not want to see.

There are a lot of people on the list who could share stories about  
how they got through zoning. One group in Florida had to address  
accusations that they were nudists. Prove a negative? They got the  
zoning change.

Everything is hard, but if you want to do it the only way is to start  
and to start with a specific plan. We have figures now about how low  
the costs have to go but I'm not hearing a plan.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
"Logic will get you from A to B.  Imagination will take you  
everywhere."  Albert Einstein