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Site search: The site search is now completed with the purchase of a 20 acre tract in Bastrop Couty, Texas. It is about an hour's drive into Austin locations at rush hour. The tract has about five clear acres on the west and about five clear acres on the east with stream beds supporting an oak tree woods in the middle half. There are road easements on both sides, but legal access only on the west side. There is also water available on the west side. Site Development: Contact has been made with the electric company, and an engineer has visited the location. They believe they can bring electricity to the west side from the south. Thus we plan to develop a cluster in the southwest of the property first. An initial contact with Southwest Bell revealed that they would not even talk to us until we has an address, which we do not have now, since there is no name associated with the easement on the west side. Fortunately, they were able to point us to the people who assign names and addresses. Since the name was being assigned, we expressed a preference for "Millennial Way". Unofficial sources indicate that our preference will be the name. The fire chief of the volunteer fire department was contacted, and discussion with him indicated that we had better do as much as we can to prevent fires. Thus we plan to have fire detectors in every room and ABC fire extinguishers in every room. We plan to hold regular practice with the fire extinguishers, which several people have commented is always fun. These are measures to prevent the internal development of a fire. Several measures for prevention of spread of a fire from outside are also planned. While oak does not burn in a fire, there may be more combustible species present also, as well as under brush. We expect to remove any particularly combustible trees and the underbrush among the oaks. We also plan to clear a thirty foot fire break on the south and north borders. We also plan for each house to have metal siding and roofing, and to keep 30 feet between houses. Corporation: We have located a lawyer whose practice is mostly Texas cooperatives. He is not aware of any housing cooperatives in Texas besides the University student housing cooperatives. A HUD Rural Development Authority representative also said he was not aware of any rural housing cooperatives in Texas. Thus we will be breaking new ground in setting up our corporate structure. The principle legal documents defining a housing cooperative are the Articles of Incorporation, the Bylaws, the Policies and Porceedures, and the Proprietary Lease. A draft of the Articles has been completed, posted to fmf-lbc, and sent to the lawyer for review. The Bylaws and Lease are being drafted, while sections of the Bylaws are being posted.
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