Designing gathering spaces
From: Nessa Dertnig (nessadertniggmail.com)
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:51:05 -0700 (PDT)
Hello there,

I'm a member of Belfast Cohousing and Ecovillage in Maine, and we're a
couple weeks away from having our first members move in (yay!).  We're
doing the building over time, so some other units will be started this
spring, and we're hoping to have the last ones finished in about a year and
a half.   What this means is that some people will be living on the land
before the whole community is finished being built.

So my question has to do with designing community gathering spaces and
setting boundaries for yards.  We didn't put a set space for yards in any
of our legal documents, wanting to retain some flexibility around this, and
nor are the gathering spaces set on any maps -- the thinking was that once
the houses were built we'd figure this out.  So now the question is, do we
try to accomodate those folks who are moving in next month and over this
summer and fall by mapping yards and gathering spaces now, or does it make
more sense to wait until all the homes are done and we can get a better
sense of how the whole community space feels?

We have a divergence of opinion on this issue -- some people think that
it's unrealistic to expect people to wait up to a year and a half before
they can settle into the space around their houses because they have no
designated yards, and believe that space will just be claimed and used
around houses anyway, which will make it more difficult in the long run, if
the claimed space is really more appropriate for a community node or
something else.  Other people believe that we can't effectively plan our
outdoor spaces until the community is completely built, and that the people
moving in now are lucky to be on the land first and can wait until the rest
of us are moved in before we plan these things.

Any input on the designing of nodes/gathering spaces and yards, including
when it's appropriate to do it, as well as how it's best done (few-hour
long workshop by all members? land use committee coming up with a
preliminary plan and opening it up to community comments and changes?
etc.?), would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much,
Nessa

Belfast Cohousing & Ecovillage, where we're still looking for a few new
members to fill out our community!
mainecohousing.org

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