Source
https://www.earthsong.org.nz/resources/documents — original source (opens in a new tab; the file is not redistributed)
Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood — Body Corporate No. 210417 Rules (adopted AGM 15 Oct 2016)
The registered Body Corporate rulebook for Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood (Body Corporate No. 210417, Unit Plan DP210417, 457 Swanson Rd, Ranui, West Auckland), adopted under the Unit Titles Act 2010 ss105–106 at the AGM of 15 Oct 2016. It legally entrenches Earthsong's consensus governance: a coloured-card Group Decision Making Process for all general-meeting decisions (with a three-quarters-majority fallback), a binding permaculture Vision Statement, compulsory society membership, organic-certification and mediation-first dispute clauses. Thesis-context cohousing-governance background;
feeds:[earthsong_ranui].
Summary
This is the statutory rulebook that governs Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood as a legal entity — the rules of Body Corporate No. 210417 (North Auckland Registry), over Unit Plan DP210417 at 457 Swanson Rd, Ranui, West Auckland, adopted at the Annual General Meeting of 15 October 2016 pursuant to the Unit Titles Act 2010 ss105 & 106, replacing the rules adopted at the AGM of 15 August 2012. Its significance for the thesis is that it shows a New Zealand cohousing community operationalising consensus decision-making inside a conventional property-law shell: Rule 10 requires that every matter at a general meeting is first decided by the Group Decision Making Process (Appendix B) — a facilitated coloured-card protocol (six discussion cards, five decision cards) — and only if consensus fails after a further meeting does the decision fall to a three-quarters majority of proprietors’ votes (or, per Rule 10, a formal resolution under Act ss97/98/101). Beyond the decision method, the rules entrench the community’s values as legally enforceable obligations: the permaculture/sustainability Vision Statement (Appendix A) is a binding rule that no proprietor may act in conflict with (Rules 2.19, 14.3); proprietors must not compromise the Body Corporate’s BioGro organic certification (2.20); must become and remain members of the Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood unincorporated society (2.27); disputes not settled by the Group Decision Making Process go to mediation rather than litigation (Rule 15); and the shared common house is governed by a Joint Venture Agreement (7 Jun 2005, amended 9 May 2014) between the Body Corporate, Cohousing New Zealand Limited and the Earthsong Centre Trust (Rules 2.26, 8.14). It is the documentary counterpart to the interviewee accounts of Earthsong’s matured consensus culture (Interview V [INT_005], Interview VI [INT_006]) and the governance instrument behind the earthsong_ranui case. context: thesis, feeds: [earthsong_ranui] — intentional-community governance background feeding the case page, not an NI calculation input.
Key claims
- claim: "The document is the rulebook of 'EARTHSONG ECO-NEIGHBOURHOOD, BODY CORPORATE No. 210417 (North Auckland Registry)', with 'Rules adopted at the Annual General Meeting on 15 October 2016, pursuant to the Unit Titles Act 2010 ss105 & 106, in substitution for the rules adopted by the body corporate at its AGM on 15 August 2012.' Defined terms fix the entity: 'Development' = 'the development on the Land at 457 Swanson Rd Ranui, Auckland'; 'Unit Plan' = 'Unit Plan No. DP210417 (North Auckland Registry)'; 'Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood' = 'the unincorporated society of Earthsong owners, residents and associates which meets regularly and manages the day to day affairs of the Earthsong community.'"
source_location: "Header + Rule 1.1 Definitions, p.1"
- claim: "Consensus is the primary decision rule. Rule 10 (Voting Process): 'All matters to be determined by the Body Corporate at a general meeting shall, in the first instance, be determined by the Group Decision Making Process. If consensus is not reached on an issue then that issue shall be resolved by resolution in accordance with sections 97, 98 and 101 of the Act.' 'Consensus' is defined as 'the stage at which, pursuant to the Group Decision Making Process, a matter has been consented to.'"
source_location: "Rule 10, p.7; Rule 1.1 Definitions ('Consensus'), p.1"
- claim: "The Group Decision Making Process (Appendix B) uses coloured cards. For DISCUSSION each participant has six cards: 'Black I have an interpersonal difficulty that is preventing my full participation; Red I have a process observation, e.g. the discussion is off the subject; Orange I wish to acknowledge someone or something; Yellow I have a question, or need clarification; Green I can provide clarification; Blue I have a comment or opinion.' 'Cards are accorded differing priority and are heard in the order listed above' (black first, red the 'stop the process' card next). The process 'requires every person in the room to participate in decision making. Dominant personalities will find it harder to push their ideas through at the expense of less vocal members, and softer-spoken members find it easier to voice their concerns.'"
source_location: "Appendix B — Group Decision Making Process (Discussion), pp.10–11"
- claim: "For DECISION MAKING each participant has five cards: 'Green I agree with the proposal at hand; Blue I am neutral or basically for it, with some slight reservation; Yellow I have a question to be answered before I can make a decision; Orange I have a serious reservation, but I am not willing to block Consensus; Red I am blocking this proposal and am willing to help find a collective solution.' 'a proposal has been passed by consensus unless there are still red cards being shown. If consensus is still not reached after a further meeting on the topic, the decision can be made by a three quarters majority of proprietors votes.' Revisiting: an absent proprietor may request to revisit a decision at the next meeting only; 'Otherwise decisions may only be reopened with the prior agreement of 50% of proprietors.'"
source_location: "Appendix B — Group Decision Making Process (Decision making + Process for Revisiting Decisions), p.11"
- claim: "The Vision Statement is a binding rule, not aspiration. Appendix A: 'To establish and maintain a co-housing neighbourhood based on the principles of permaculture, that will serve as a model of a socially, environmentally sustainable community.' Its three aims are to (1) 'design, construct and maintain a cohesive neighbourhood whose layout, buildings and services demonstrate the highest practical standards of sustainable human settlement'; (2) 'develop and foster a living environment which uses clear communication, decision making and conflict resolution guidelines that promote tolerance, safety, respect and co-operation'; and (3) 'assist in education and public awareness of sustainability by demonstrating and promoting innovative community design and environmentally responsible construction.' Proprietors must 'Not do anything or allow anything to be done which may constitute a breach of, or conflict with, the Vision Statement' (Rule 2.19) and must not use a unit 'in any way which may conflict with the Vision Statement' (Rule 14.3)."
source_location: "Appendix A, p.10; Rules 2.19 & 14.3, pp.3 & 8"
- claim: "Values are entrenched as enforceable obligations. Rule 2.20: a proprietor shall 'Ensure that no substance or any other thing used, stored or sold on the Unit or the Common Property will compromise in any way the ability of the Body Corporate to obtain and maintain certification in terms of the current Bio-Gro Organic Certification Standards regime or its equivalent.' Rule 2.27: 'Become and remain a member of Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood' (extended to any lessee/occupier by Rules 12.4 and 16). Rule 8.4 requires the Body Corporate to 'Keep and maintain to a high standard any planting and pot plants that form part of the common property'; Rule 14.5 restricts parking on common property to Body-Corporate-designated areas."
source_location: "Rules 2.20, 2.27, pp.3–4; Rules 8.4, 12.4, 14.5, 16, pp.5, 7, 8, 9"
- claim: "Dispute resolution is mediation-first, not litigation. Rule 15.1: 'Any dispute arising between proprietors, or between proprietors and occupiers, or between proprietors and the body corporate, which is not resolved by the Group Decision Making Process, shall be referred to mediation' (mediator via the Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution Centre NZ Limited, else AMINZ; must cease if unresolved within 14 Working Days; each party pays half the mediator's fee; mediated settlement binds the parties; mediation is confidential). Exception 15.2: the clause 'does not apply to any dispute arising between an occupier or proprietor and the Body Corporate over the interpretation or application of these rules.'"
source_location: "Rule 15 (Resolution of Disputes), pp.8–9"
- claim: "The shared common house sits under a separate joint-venture instrument. Rules 2.26 and 8.14 require compliance with 'the Joint Venture Agreement dated 7th June 2005 between the Body Corporate, Cohousing New Zealand Limited and the Earthsong Centre Trust, as amended by deed dated 9th May 2014, in relation to the existence and operation of the Earthsong Community Building on the Common Property which is also used by the proprietors as their common house.' A closing set of 'Communication Agreements' (Appendix B) commits members to speak with 'I' statements, speak succinctly, own their own feelings, respect others' right to speak uninterrupted, respect privacy, value different contributions, deal with problematic issues directly, and 'remember to have fun.'"
source_location: "Rules 2.26 & 8.14, pp.4 & 6; Appendix B — Communication Agreements, pp.11–12"Key thesis insights
- Consensus governance given legal force inside a conventional ownership shell. Earthsong’s most-cited social feature — decision-by-consensus using coloured cards — is not merely a cultural practice; it is written into the community’s statutory Body Corporate rules under the Unit Titles Act 2010. Rule 10 makes the Group Decision Making Process (Appendix B) the mandatory first step for every general-meeting matter, with a defined three-quarters-majority fallback (and formal Act-resolution route) only when consensus fails after a further meeting. For the thesis this is a rare, documented NZ case of an intentional community embedding sociocratic/consensus process into ordinary property law — the legal counterpart to the “matured consensus” accounts of Interview V [INT_005] and Interview VI [INT_006]. OT_138
- A designed decision protocol that deliberately rebalances power. The card system separates discussion (six cards, black/interpersonal-difficulty first, red/“stop the process” next) from decision (five cards, from green-agree to red-blocking-and-willing-to-help), and the rules explicitly justify it: ‘Dominant personalities will find it harder to push their ideas through at the expense of less vocal members, and softer-spoken members find it easier to voice their concerns.’ This is a concrete, transcribable governance artefact for the thesis’s decision-making / social-cohesion argument — a method, not just a value. OT_138
- Values entrenched as enforceable covenants. The permaculture/sustainability Vision Statement is a binding rule (2.19, 14.3), and the rulebook further compels BioGro organic-certification compliance (2.20), compulsory membership of the Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood society (2.27), high-standard communal planting (8.4) and parking control (14.5). This shows how an intentional community can lock its founding values into the property-governance layer so they bind future owners — directly relevant to the thesis question of how self-sufficiency/sustainability commitments survive turnover. Complements the Interviewee account (INT_006) of the shared written vision as the community’s aligning device. OT_138
- Mediation-first conflict resolution and a layered legal architecture. Disputes go to mediation (AMINZ), not the courts (Rule 15), operationalising the Vision’s “conflict resolution guidelines.” And the community stacks three legal entities — a unit-title Body Corporate, the unincorporated Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood society, and a Joint Venture Agreement (Body Corporate + Cohousing New Zealand Ltd + Earthsong Centre Trust) for the common house — a worked example of the multi-entity legal scaffolding a NZ cohousing project assembles, useful for the thesis’s governance-structures/tenure discussion alongside OT_010 and OT_054. OT_138
Research targets
Documents to retrieve
- RT_383 (low priority) — the Joint Venture Agreement dated 7 June 2005 between Body Corporate No. 210417, Cohousing New Zealand Limited and the Earthsong Centre Trust, as amended by deed dated 9 May 2014, governing the Earthsong Community Building / common house on the Common Property (referenced in Rules 2.26 and 8.14). Would complete the documentary picture of Earthsong’s common-house tenure and cost-sharing alongside the Trust Deed / MOU. → thesis (governance / tenure)
Research gaps
- None raised. This is the authoritative governance primary; its consensus-process and Vision content are corroborated by the two Earthsong interviews (INT_005/INT_006) already in the corpus.
Notes
The registered rulebook of Body Corporate No. 210417 (North Auckland Registry), Unit Plan DP210417, 457 Swanson Rd, Ranui, West Auckland — the legal governance instrument for Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood. Rules adopted at the AGM of 15 October 2016 under the Unit Titles Act 2010 ss105 & 106, replacing the rules adopted at the AGM of 15 August 2012. 12 pp; PDF produced from Word on 10 Jul 2017. Read verbatim via pdftotext -layout — data_quality: verified (it is the authoritative primary itself, read in full; its consensus-governance and Vision-Statement substance is independently corroborated by the interviewee interviews Interview VI [INT_006] and Interview V [INT_005]). context: thesis, feeds: [earthsong_ranui] — cohousing-governance / intentional-community legal-structure background feeding the case page, not an NI calculation input.
⚠ Legal-text primary, not a data source. This document carries essentially no quantitative figures — its value is the governance mechanism (consensus process, Vision-as-rule, mediation, multi-entity structure). Do not mine it for NI cost/performance cells; the quantitative Earthsong evidence lives in the sibling OT pages (OT_078, OT_092, OT_094, OT_098).
⚠ Feeds. Frontmatter is set to feeds: [earthsong_ranui], matching the sibling-OT convention (OT_078/092/093/094/098 all feed the earthsong_ranui case page). This source contributes a governance bullet to the case page. The feed is a case-page contribution, not an NI SSI/EDT calculation input — this governance primary has none.
Connections
Links to
Referenced by