[Cob] Choosing a land/building site?

[Lee Shultz]

Hi.
 
When navigating codes and such, I've found that talking to someone who has already built a permitted cob or straw bale house to be invaluable. In case you have not found this site/person yet, here is Sigi Koko's site. Since she works in Pennsylvania, MD, VA, she may be able to give valuable info for building in NY.
 
http://www.buildnaturally.com/
 
Have fun,
 
Bev

________________________________

From: coblist-bounces at deatech.com on behalf of Thomas Gorman
Sent: Wed 3/1/2006 6:06 AM
To: coblist at deatech.com
Subject: Re:[Cob] Choosing a land/building site?



I've been immersed in reading along these same lines too, and I'm 
finding there is a wealth of information out there, but not 
comprehensively compiled in one place.  Almost every book on building 
(natural and otherwise) has a section on finding land, siting, etc.  
Use the library!  It seems that more and more the initial impulse is 
to click to Amazon or trot down to B&N and start buying.  If you are 
lucky your local library is part of a larger network with an online 
catalog and you can request books from any of the related branches.  
I always check the library now, then move on to Powells then Amazon 
when looking for a book.  Since becoming interested in cob (and other 
related green building) I find I'm stopping at the library twice a 
week now to pick up books I've requested.  The NYC system has about 
60% of what I'm interested in, though they didn't have The Hand 
Sculpted House.  When I'm done passing that around to everyone I know 
that I think will be interested in it I may donate it.

The Christopher Alexander book is dry and dated at first look 
(appears as if it was published in '40 rather than '70!), but really 
interesting and instructive when you get into it!

I've found "Creating A Life Together" by Diana Christian to have some 
good information on choosing land, etc.  It's more about the process 
of finding, buying and building with an eco-village or intentional 
community in mind, but brings up issues that anyone thinking about 
'alternative' building should bear in mind: codes, zoning, neighbors, 
etc.

I think perhaps there isn't any one go-to comprehensive guide or 
information source for finding and buying land specifically for 
'alternative' building because there are so many code and zoning 
variations that radically differ from town to town, county to county, 
and much is arbitrarily dictated by local officials.  Official 
information from the state or county sources seems purposely opaque, 
no doubt to protect these bureaucracies from liability and to allow 
them maximum control over what can and can't be done.  It's a real 
pain to navigate.  The argument is that these codes and regulations 
are in place to protect the public (us), but they are just as much in 
place to protect 'the system', the building industries and the status 
quo.  I'm coming around to thinking that while all this zoning and 
code variation and inconsistency creates more work for those of us 
who wish to build 'alternatively' and/or innovate and eliminates a 
lot of locations as possibilities and creates  unnecessary expense, 
it might actually be better than having cob, etc. formally written 
into the codes.  The codes and regulations are as much determined by 
the interests of the building industry as safety 'experts' etc., and 
the idea of building systems that could cut into their profits being 
widely accepted is pretty unlikely.  What will probably eventually 
happen is the codes will be written to make cob building more 
restricted and expensive and difficult rather than the opposite.  The 
current uncertainty and vagueness may be our only opportunity to find 
'wiggle room' and build the way we would like.

Tom
NYC

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