United Stand (Building Code Confrontation, California Style)

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A very large step toward satisfying this three-part need was recently taken with the publication of a new book, The Owner-Builder and the Code: Politics of Building Your Home . . . which explores the murky waters of the health and construction codes, their origins, the growing tendency for such regulations to be written and enforced by big-business-oriented bureaucrats . . . and the plight of the owner-builder who feels increasingly alienated and put upon by the whole trend.

The volume was authored by three men who take this developing problem quite seriously: Ken Kern (a pioneer in "alternative" architecture and low-cost construction and author of The Owner-Built Home and The Owner-Built Homestead), Ted Kogon (a key figure in United Stand—a Mendocino County, California organization of owner-builders who have successfully defended their homes from the bureaucrats), and Rob Thallon (an instructor in architectural design who was awarded his master's degree for a thesis on self-built homes).

The following excerpt from the Kern-Kogon-Thallon book traces the recent confrontation between the "Code Enforcers" of Mendocino County, California on the one hand . . . and the
"rural self-contractors" who live within that jurisdiction on the other. Of old property values against new ideas. Of short hair versus long. Of bureaucrats and administrators and the government and an entrenched legal establishment finally—for once!—being stopped in its tracks by "the people" : "The people ", in this case, being a group of do-it-yourself home
builders known as United ,Stand . . . and Jerry Brown, the new and enlightened young governor of the state of California.

The story of United Stand graphically illustrates the extremes in code enforcement and how the codes are sometimes used to raze low-cost homes instead of promote them. It exposes the contradictions between code uniformity and individual self-determination. It also tells the story of an alliance of owner-builders who have successfully utilized the political process in defense of their homes.

The success and failure of United Stand is closely related to the legitimacy of the lifestyle which spawned the current wave of owner-building, and to the ability of democracy to permit that way of life. United Stand's strength is derived from the awareness that the right to shelter is inalienable. Its weakness is that universal infirmity . . . namely, perfunctory and selective treatment by disinterested government agencies.

The story of United Stand is a lesson in the art of affirmative political action, of common citizens uniting to implement their group will. The authors hope our readers will learn from the experience of United Stand. We hope this book will foster a political consciousness which will enable owner-builders to resist the tyranny of prohibitive government control over the act of people providing their own shelter.

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