Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Private Gardens on Common Area Land

[Norman Gauss (normangauss]

Doug:

Your Limited Common Area concept is interesting.  Is it defined anywhere in
your governing documents?

Neither our CC&Rs or Bylaws say anything about private gardens on common
area land.  We have only Exclusive Use Common Areas which are front porches
and back patios.  In other words, the idea of a condo owner installing a
private garden on common area land is not treated anywhere.  

So far, we have developed a set of rules called Landscape Alteration
Guidelines, which covers current owners and rentals, and we have stated that
if owners no longer want to take care of private gardens, they must restore
the land to its original condition at their own expense.  But there is no
individual agreements signed by original owners that they will do this.

The most difficult issue is watering the plants with private water.  The
plants need irrigation, either intensive or occasional.  If the new owner
refuses to water the plants with his own water supply, then reinstalling the
original drip irrigation to that area is necessary.

Norman Gauss

-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas Larson [mailto:ddhle [at] earthlink.net] 
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2011 6:49 AM
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org; cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Private Gardens on Common Area Land


>
> We at Oak Creek Commons in Paso Robles, CA, are wrestling with 
> landscaping issues that have arisen when occupancy of our condo units
changes.
>
> When the original owners sell
> their units, the question has arisen as to how the private garden is 
> to be maintained.  Since our climate is on the dry side, irrigation is
needed.
>
> So if a beautiful garden requiring extra water is created, how do we 
> have this garden taken care of under the new owner, especially if the new
owner
> has no interest in maintaining the garden?    

What is your community policy around land use around individual units? At
Songaia the space around each unit is defined as Limited Common space,
meaning it is owned by the community as a whole but what gets planted there
is chosen by the unit owner and it is maintained by the unit owner. There
are guildlines that prevent the owner from planting something that will
block sight-lines for any other units but aside from that the owner is free
to choose. While we have had several units turn over in our 10+ years, we
have never had the need to do anything about the plantings in any Limited
common space. some people maintain their garden space well and others let it
go to one degree or another. 

I do not doubt that some unit owners do not like looking at a neighbor's
unkept garden and some of them might even speak up about it, but the core
issue is that unless your community has some sort of policy, i.e.
convenants, about it, then you are faced with getting someone to maintain
their garden because you want them to. 

So my answer to your last question is that it depends on your community
policies, guidelines or bylaws. If something specifies who is responsible
for upkeep then that is who is responsible. Aside from your community's
policy the obvious answer to you question is that you don't take care of a
garden when the new owner doesn't want to. 

Douglas Larson,
Songaia Cohousing,
Bothell, Washington






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