Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Designing gathering spaces

[Nancy Baumeister (nancybee]

On 4/24/2012 8:06 PM, Nessa Dertnig wrote:
> I guess I'm still trying to get clear on whether everyone out there in coho 
> land thinks this issue is pressing enough to warrant being tackled immediately, 
> or if it's okay to give everyone a very minimal yard for now (5-10 feet in 
> front and behind their house)
I would go with the minimal. It is very hard to take something away once people 
get used to an idea of how things are. If you all can agree on minimal yards now 
with later refinement then I think that is OK for now.

Our approach was to put minimal outdoor space into the deeds (we are organized 
as a condo in townhouses and flats) and respond to individual requests/needs as 
they came up. We have ended up giving management (effective ownership within 
some agreed upon policies) of the sides of the buildings to the people living on 
the ends of each building. And we originally had thought to have  some land 
along the central path that would be landscaped with the same palette of plants 
to give us a cohesive feel. Well, that didn't work so we just gave that space to 
the people who live in front of it. Soi the evolution has been towards 
individual control rather than community management.

So at this point the land directly around the buildings is effectively under 
individual control. Everything else is managed by the community.

Before move-in we had a landscape architect (working with a team of members) 
design a landscape plan. At this point (4 years later) we are realizing that 
some parts of that plan don't work for us, some parts are too fuzzy to be 
useful, and some parts need more careful definition. So we are starting a long 
slow process of re-examining everything. There are 24 different interest areas 
which have from 2 to 15 people interested in designing them- the results will go 
to a meeting for communiy approval. I expect the process will take more than a year.

One of the things I have learned living in cohousing is how different people are 
from each other. Peoples needs around land  are very different. Some people will 
come with a lot of outdoor stuff (that was me). Some people are perfectly happy 
with a little 3x5 foot strip to plant flowers in . They don't want and won't 
care for a larger area..

I have also learned that the period right after move-in is not normal. People 
are new and they don't know yet how to set up their situation so that it works 
well for them. So flexibility and a period of adjustment is needed.


Bottom line

> Would anyone out there advocate the more laissez-faire approach of letting 
> things be fuzzy and uncertain for a while, or do most of you agree that it's 
> much better to get things defined beforehand?  Some of our group wonders about 
> possible conflicts later -- even if you say things are temporary for this year, 
> it seems there will inevitably be problems getting people to give up things 
> later.  How do you work with this kind of thing?
>
> Also, has anyone heard of a community where yards are not defined at all, and 
> how this has worked or not worked?
>
> Take care,
> Nessa
>
>
>
>
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:20:31 -0500
> From: Jerry McIntire<jerry.mcintire [at] gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Subject:  Designing gathering spaces
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Message-ID:
>      <CA+rotZNccpkwg4WJ3twSC8kK9OTvggR-MEZETYXba7xekmv2Wg [at] mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Nessa,
>
> Congratulations to you and everyone at Belfast on your imminent move-in! I
> hope to visit you in June because of your similarities to our situation:
> small town ecovillage with a commitment to affordable housing.
>
> Regarding common and private spaces outside the homes, I think deciding
> ahead of time how much yard an owner will be able to use privately would be
> an important decision to make before move-in. In fact, it is such an
> integral part of the value of a home, I can't imagine arriving at a price
> without having that space defined.
>
> As Sharon has pointed out, access for other members passing by, for
> lawnmowers, etc. all need to be considered.
>
> I would have thought that gathering places too would have been designed as
> part of site planning, before any construction began. Of course, these are
> my *assumptions*.
>
> Since you have people moving in over the course of a year or more, I would
> think that deciding now, before a minority start making de facto decisions
> because they're living on site first, is important.
>
> All the best, Jerry
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--
Nancy Baumeister
CoHoEcovillage.org
www.flickr.com/photos/nancybeetoo/tags/
"Let's have a moment of silence for all those Americans who are stuck in traffic on 
their way to the gym to ride the stationary bicycle."
-- U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.)