Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Alexandria VA wants to group cohousing with Boarding houses - please speak up

[Chris Roth - Communities Editor (editor]

Hi Ann and all,

Thanks for your further message. You will probably be interested to hear 
that I did get a very courteous and thoughtful letter back from Alexa 
Powell. I will not forward that to the whole list because she did not 
specifically give me permission to do that. But I hope I am not breaking 
any news embargoes by revealing that, according to her email to me, the 
name is going to be changed away from "cohousing" at an Open House 
meeting scheduled for April 20. In a possible excess of caution, I'm not 
comfortable leaking the new name prior to that announcement other than 
to say that it's not cohousing. :-)

It sounds as if the proposed changes to their code would not generally 
affect actual cohousing, which can already be achieved through 
traditional site plans under the town's ordinances, since each unit has 
its own cooking facilities. What this initiative is opening up is the 
possibility of unrelated people living together with only shared kitchen 
facilities on a site if they so choose, something that would require a 
"full-hearing SUP" to achieve right now. I don't totally understand what 
that means but it sounds as if she's working toward some really worthy 
goals and has also taken the feedback about terminology to heart, with 
the results soon to be revealed.

Thanks again,

Chris

> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2021 20:03:49 -0400
> From: Ann Zabaldo <zabaldo [at] earthlink.net>
> To: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
> Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Alexandria VA wants to group cohousing with
>         Boarding houses - please speak up
> Message-ID: <8465A618-72E7-47DE-96CD-3C5A2598DC40 [at] earthlink.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=utf-8
>
> Hello Chris and all ?
>
> First, no one owes any apology for anything regarding this thread on the misuse 
> of the term ?cohousing.?
>
> Second, anyone is free to write or say anything to anyone they like about 
> "cohousing ? ? altho' it would be useful if we had a unified definition or 
> language in describing cohousing?s niche place in the housing market.  Truth is ? 
> what and when anyone writes is actually none of my business.
>
> Chris, thank you for writing to Ms. Powell.  You wrote a very good email to 
> her.  It was especially good as you were able to show your credentials.  (This 
> does not mean everyone has to have ?credentials? to write about cohousing.  If 
> you are thinking about, beginning a group, building a community, or living in 
> cohousing ? you have credentials.) I applaud you, Chris, for taking a stand in 
> keeping the definition of cohousing ?clean.?
>
> Becca is correct ? if we don?t speak up when we see a misuse of the term the 
> misinformation will continue occluding the unique, innovative housing model 
> cohousing is.
>
> So easy to muck it up!  (That?s ?u-c-k" w/ an ?M? as in ?Mary? ? just in case ?)
>
> In the "Case of Alexandria, Virginia, Misusing the Term Cohousing?  I was concerned 
> that nothing go astray as I want to cultivate Ms. Powell for future cohousing projects.  
> ?My" concerns got in the way.
>
> I still wonder if it is possible to coordinate our responses to create the best 
> effect when answering these misuses.
>
> In re: timing for posting emails ? my emails always seem to post long after I 
> send them.  W/ Fred?s help I figured out writing in a word processor then 
> cutting, copying and pasting into the email is not a good thing. WAAAY too big 
> for our email server to handle.   So for longer emails I?ll compose in plain 
> text and then export the plain text into the email.
>
> For the previous email I sent w/ information about my writing to Ms. Powell ? I 
> wrote that directly into the body of the email.  So I don?t know why that one 
> was held up.  The ways of the digital universe are deep and mysterious.
>
> :-)
>
> Best --
>
> Ann Zabaldo
> Takoma Village Cohousing
> Washington, DC
> Member, Board of Directors
> Mid Atlantic Cohousing
> Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
> Falls Church, VA
> 202.546.4654
>
> Do you ever get up in the morning, look at yourself in the mirror and think ? 
> ?That can?t be  accurate.?
>
> NOTE: I am switching back to: zabaldo [at] earthlink.net.  Many apologies!
--
Chris Roth
Editor, Communities
81868 Lost Valley Lane
Dexter, OR 97431
editor [at] gen-us.net
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