Retooling the Common-Interest Community, Essay Example

In Doris S. Goldstein’s “Retooling the Common Interest Community”, the author examines the relationship between community association, urban design and the law. Goldstein underscores the importance of community associations to the development of green planning, insofar as there is a noticeable absence of support for development on governmental levels. Accordingly, a well-structured community association can become necessary to maximize the potentiality of effective, contemporary urban planning.

The author explains that the community association traditionally functions as a means by which financial capital can be acquired for various neighborhood projects, such as parks. Goldstein stresses, however, that this money-accruing aspect is often accompanied by a lack of “creative” development planning. In other words, the associations do not have a long-term perspective that is informed by various trends in urban planning, such as sustainable design. Another crucial problem with the community association model is related to various laws and legal obligations concerning development and planning, as such associations often evince a lack of careful consideration of legal issues. The author notes that community associations can accordingly become misguided regarding their true function and goal, instead focusing on, for example, the promotion of proper conduct on a given property, as opposed to managing and planning the property itself.

Since, as Goldstein observes, the community association has emerged according to an amalgamation of real property, contract and corporate law, this has granted such associations a certain autonomy. It is this very autonomy, however, which can have negative corollaries. Accordingly, the community association, while becoming an increasingly influential body within urban design, must present a comprehensive world-view, which optimizes the existence of those groups constitutive of the community, such as the residential and the consumer sectors, while also considering greater legal and design issues.