We make decisions by consensus in monthly meetings of all residents who wish to attend. Everyone who has lived in the community for three months and has attended three community meetings has the same voting rights, and the right to block consensus, as the most senior members. There are some committees that meet irregularly, but in part because we have been around for so long, there aren't as many issues that require a lot of meeting time. In 1999 the community was rezoned as a planned development by the city council. As a planned development, the community can build larger granny flats than is allowed in the surrounding neighborhood.
Set backs are slightly more relaxed.
The community is working on redesigning the common house and hopes to add a 1200 square foot addition as a second story granny flat to provide additional low income housing for tenants. Ideally reconstruction will start in 2001. There is a recent article about us in The Urban Ecologist . Donna Spreitzer, a former N St resident, did a comparison of N St. and Muir Commons for her Master's Thesis . Here are our visions and goals.