[Cob] Choosing a land/building site?

[Thomas Gorman]

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