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Tasman District Council plans

SC Sonia Corbett Public Seen by 183

TDC is looking into "cooperative housing" and greater density of housing especially in the Rural Residential zone, which includes Atamai. This potentially has important implications for us. I would like to respond - if I can muster the time and energy! If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please let me know.

JS

Joanne Sharp Thu 12 Mar 2015 4:28AM

Making a submission is a great idea, Sonia. It's sort of difficult to separate out things that could benefit Atamai from things that could benefit CoHOP (of course, they overlap). Here are my thoughts:
1. Architect Christopher Alexander wrote a great book called "A Pattern Language" about patterns for idealised human settlements. You can find a copy here: http://library.uniteddiversity.coop/Ecological_Building/. He gives ideas about how regions, towns, dwellings should be structured and built. I can already see some of Alexander's work at Atamai. Maybe we should encourage the TDC to think along those lines. Atamai = self-contained town. He also talks about a mix of household types and house clusters with common land between - very important for cohousing - and even higher density housing types. There's a lot of reasoning given.
2. The UN says that smallholders (not large farms) are the key to sustainability and food security (see http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=45076#.VQELTvmUeE0). The TDC is worried about keeping rural land "productive", but large farms are much less productive than small farms. Atamai is a good size for residential productive smallholding, and the ability to increase density would increase our capacity to work the land as council wishes as well as establish small rural enterprises.
3. It appears as if the council is willing to consider applications on an individual basis rather than make a blanket statement -- that could actually work in Atamai's favour and allow a number of progressive solutions without being bound by a single council directive.

This is just food for thought. The changes they're considering could be really good for CoHOP and Atamai in general. Haven't digested it all yet, though.

DR

Deborah Rolston Thu 12 Mar 2015 4:44AM

That sounds fantastic, Sonia. Go for it!
I'll look out for you on Skype this weekend :)

SC

Sonia Corbett Thu 12 Mar 2015 5:04AM

Thanks Jo. You've just about written a submission for us!

I'm very familiar with Christopher Alexander's work, and Petra Stephenson has even written a modified Pattern Language specifically for Atamai. She also makes your points 1 & 2 - house clusters and smallholders are the answer to TDC's own wishes.

I'll write an individual submission and I hope Joanna Santa Barbara and some other Atamaites may do the same. I'll also contact Liz Thomas in Takaka, whom I'm collaborating with on a workshop on 22 March on affordable housing. She has been on the council's case for years about more sensible housing policies.

Thanks again - I'll keep you in the loop.

Regards,
Sonia.

Sonia CorbettEmail: [email protected] ( [email protected] )

Mobile: 021 190 1290
Skype: sonia.corbett3

SC

Sonia Corbett Thu 12 Mar 2015 5:13AM

Hello Deborah,

Thank you. I'll be here early afternoon and evening Saturday, and Sunday afternoon. I'll look out for you on Skype.

Regards,
Sonia.

Sonia CorbettEmail: [email protected] ( [email protected] )

Mobile: 021 190 1290
Skype: sonia.corbett3

JSB

Joanna Santa Barbara Thu 12 Mar 2015 6:34PM

I appreciated Jo Sharpe's comments and references. These are the ideas we want to convey. I'd like to work with Sonia on this. There may be benefit in doing two submissions though.

SC

Sonia Corbett Thu 12 Mar 2015 10:12PM

Thank you Joanna. I was hoping to get hundreds of people to make individual submissions! I think the council are only asking for opinions, rather than formal submissions, at this stage, so it wouldn't be hard for everyone interested in cohousing to write a short letter to TDC to that effect. Maybe we could draft some suggested points for people to write about?

Sonia CorbettEmail: [email protected] ( [email protected] )

Mobile: 021 190 1290
Skype: sonia.corbett3

JSB

Joanna Santa Barbara Fri 13 Mar 2015 2:36AM

Yes, Sonia. Would you like to spend a little time together on Mondya on this?

Joanna

SC

Sonia Corbett Fri 13 Mar 2015 7:57AM

Yes, please. I have a skype meeting 11.30-12.30. Anytime before or after that is good for me.

Should I invite Liz Thomas to join us?

Regards,
Sonia.

Sonia CorbettEmail: [email protected] ( [email protected] )

Mobile: 021 190 1290
Skype: sonia.corbett3

JSB

Joanna Santa Barbara Fri 13 Mar 2015 8:18AM

How about 10am. Certainly invite Liz.

Your place or mine?

Joanna

SC

Sonia Corbett Fri 13 Mar 2015 9:01AM

Yes, 10am is good. I'll contact Liz over the weekend and hope she can join us.

I'm happy to come to your place - assuming we can use skype for Liz.

Sonia.

Sonia CorbettEmail: [email protected] ( [email protected] )

Mobile: 021 190 1290
Skype: sonia.corbett3