Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Fences

[Mabel Liang (mabel]

I looked up Shadowlake Village Cohousing, and it has 33 acres. That's
very different from the density Rita was describing. 

Where I live, at Cornerstone Cohousing in North Cambridge, MA, we have
32 units on 1 1/4 acres. The exclusive use areas are the size of a
balcony or small patio. All of the land where you can plant something is
common, except for the unit where someone chose to not have the patio
installed. Some townhouse owners have to be reminded that the land next
to their unit is _not_ "their" back yard. The only fencing we have is on
some of the perimeter. I think we would feel very chopped up if these
small areas were fenced off. 

Looking at our policies, there is nothing that outright prevents an
owner from erecting a fence, but there is an external alterations policy
that is supposed to be followed that involves either being willing to
reverse your alteration or posting your proposed alteration for 30 days,
receiving comments and resolving conflicts before proceeding. I think
there would be objections to a fence. Land use is a hot button issue
here. There's not enough of it. 

-- Mabel :-)

mabel [at] twomeeps.com
Mabel Liang
Software Engineer turned Gardener

On 2015-07-07 10:34, Muriel Kranowski wrote: 

> We have a mix of duplexes and SF houses and every home has a back yard,
> which might not be the case for you, but our philosophy is that your back
> yard is your private space. Some back yards are fenced, some achieve
> privacy with plantings, some back up to the woods, only about 6 back yards
> (out of 33) are wide open.
> Muriel at Shadowlake Village Cohousing, Blacksburg, VA
> 
> On Fri, Jul 3, 2015 at 7:26 AM, Rita Bullinger <ritabullinger [at] gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> Now that we're almost ready to move into Germantown Nashville Cohousing, 
>> some of the folks on the ground floor in the building that backs onto the 
>> alley want to build fences to allow their dogs out their back doors. Fences 
>> seem anathema to Cohousing. We have 25 units on just under one acre. We have 
>> now set up a "Modifications Committee." What have you experienced with 
>> fences in your community? Many thanks for any thoughts. Please use this new 
>> email account for me: RitaBullinger [at] gmail.com 
>> _________________________________________________________________ 
>> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at: 
>> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/ [1]
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/ [1]
 

Links:
------
[1] http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/