Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Unprogrammed suites

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Oct 24, 2012, at 3:17 PM, Beverly Jones Redekop wrote:
> 
> I valued the
> autonomy in my single-family home to create and maintain beauty, peace, and
> order for my family; I thought cohousing would be a civilized and safe
> place to co-create beauty, peace, and order while having fun and being
> connected.

The community will have to make it the responsibility of a team to be sure that 
all members and every new member understand that in cohousing or any other 
common interest living situations (condos, coops, etc.) that there are 
implications for others wheneve they alter their home. People just don't 
understand this.

An orientation or new member group will need to do more than bring in meals and 
set up welcoming parties. They will have to inform them about the policies

Instead of realizing that cohousing means you are giving up areas of 
independence for interdependence, some believe that cohousing means new 
freedom. You can do whatever you want. You are freed from the rules of zoning. 
They will say let's all just get along. Let's be free and let live. It's ours 
right? 

What they mean is its mine.

You have to help them understand that it is "ours" and "we" all signed on to a 
set of policies that are legally binding.

That said, as long as the person has both community and city approval for 
building, it may not be all bad. The discussions about a number of units were 
probablh in the context of development costs. If this is post development, and 
the person is building a legal basement rental, then as others have posted it 
may not be socially a bad idea. Cohousing needs small rental units.

Respect for community agreements is fundamental, however. 


Sharon
----
Sharon Villines, Historic Takoma Park, Washington DC
"The truth is more important than the facts." Frank Lloyd Wright