I too heard the same contractor make a nice quote. It wasn't that exact one, but it sure was as stupid.
I am proud of that town for stopping those houses from being built for now.
Our town is updating our master plan because of the building going on here. I am sure that once our land runs out that they will start to tear down our WWII era houses (about 1100 sq ft) and build new mcmansions. I just can't imagine a white huge house towering over my c1850 farmhouse. It would look so out of place in our farming community
The canal area is being built up by me also. There are two old farmhouses that the owners refuse to sell to the developers. The developers want to tear down these houses for the land! The houses are not in the best of shape but they are so pretty still, they just need a little sprucing up. I hope the owners do not sell. I will be very dissapointed.
You know, our city is going downhill they say.
Mmmmm then who are building and buying these new houses???

-renee

We're starting to see that around here, too. People are unhappy to see picturesque old houses anywhere near a waterview getting torn down and replaced by something bigger and flashier. There was a little house on the river down the road from me that was torn down and replaced by a fancy new house. There were trucks of various contractors, media installers and landscapers parked on that narrow road for 2 years, I kid you not. They brought in 20-30 foot tall replacement evergreens on huge flatbed trucks, TWICE. Now maybe that original little house was in truly bad shape, I don't know, couldn't see that much of it through the trees and shrubs, but with that much time and money you could turn all kinds of old places into true showcases.

Oh no, he gets it.

He gets it when the new house is sold.

It really is a revolting development...they have done it around here..there's an area with beautiful old houses , large front lawns and side and back yards.each unique. Then on one block they tore down 2 houses on standard city lots, put up these monstrosities with no front yard, a postage sized back yard and they just look ridiculous, like they've been stuffed onto the lots. On the market for 1.2 million. I swear there can be no more than 6 feet between the back of the house and the garage. It's illogical....if you have that much family that you need a 2 story, 4-5000 sq.ft house, wouldn't you want to be able to go outside and have something besides pavement to move around on??? For that much money wouldn't you want to put a chair or 2 outside? I have the feeling that some of these developers may get stuck holding the bag or not make as much as they wanted with these , but now we all have to live with their gaudy mistakes.

boycott the doctors and professionals coming to town. Then they won't be able to afford those houses. Result. No market.

Michael

"....if you have that much family that you need a 2 story, 4-5000 sq.ft house, wouldn't you want to be able to go outside and have something besides pavement to move around on??? "
Nah, they usually don't have much family at all. It's most likely there are just the two of them with perhaps one child, sometimes two. It all boils down to bigger is better. Ya gotta have a circular two or three story staircase with a dome if possible. Each bedroom should have its own bathroom and walk in closet, and several more bathrooms scattered around.. The master suite's bathroom needs to be bigger than most of your living rooms. There's a living room, a family room, and a media room. A large kitchen with a large casual dining area and a diningroom. Don't forget the excersize suite, and guest suite. Include a large office, perhaps a game room, lots of open space to mill around.
I just don't get it, and they're all so SAME. They all look alike.

My sister and brother-in-law in a suburb of Chicago demolished a little old house that was in awful shape and of no architectural or historical note and built a bigger house on the lot. They preserved the trees, the house is scaled well for the lot, and they chose a conservative foursquare style that fits the general age of the neighborhood. I love their house; it's not showy, but it's spacious and comfortable and a good size for themselves and their two young teen boys.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with razing run-down undistinguished housing stock. Yes, there is almost always an argument to be made for preserving it, too, but I think it often boils down to a matter of preference. (The world isn't always poorer for the loss of an old house.) But I've seen, again in my sister's neighborhood, perfectly fine and really very attractive unique homes going under the wrecking ball to be replaced with villas that do NOT say "Chicago" to me. And that's what I don't get.

My husband and I looked at a lot of new construction. I have to say, I liked the big master bath and some of the modern accoutrements. But our big old 1920 colonial revival is unique, and what we're missing in terms of the mod cons we make up for in history and continuity. Our neighborhood is full of people who moved here (and have sometimes moved within the neighborhood) because of its beauty and history. Any developer who tried to demo one of our old ladies would find himself in trouble very quickly.

hey kennebunker, you forgot the "gift wrapping" room!!!!

"gift wrapping"room! Yeah, that's right! I saw someone had one of those on some show!
When I was a kid, I once designed myself a dream house with a little creek than ran through my bathroom and out to the pool. I'd have a little bridge over it, one side of my bathroom would have had maybe a treadmill,etc, the otherside would be for bathing.If I wanted to, I could probably dip into the creek, dunk under the wall and swim out to the pool.yeah....now that's better than a plain old two story bathroom.

Hate to trash my town, but here you go...

If you want to see what unrestrained development can do to a once tastefully designed and maintained place, step off the Staten Island ferry and take a tour. This place should give pause to any municipality thinking of giving developers the green light to do undeserved teardowns.

Private property is fine; we all should retain the right to do with our property what we want, however there should be a plan, there should be tight zoning regulations in place and politicians and developers MUST NOT 'be in bed together' or have undo influence on those who approve building permits and land use.

Enjoy your McMansions...more are on the way. How these architectural monstrosities can be considered tasteful or desirable is beyond me.

And above all else...put in place housing density restrictions or you will see townhouse-type attached dwellings that will really offend your aesthetic sensibilities!

glennsfc, you are so right! That's why scryn and I are so glad to see this town putting the brakes on demos for six months so that they can consider the ramifications.

People in the town are proud of their communities and the look of their leafy streets and nice yards. I hope that they put the correct zoning ordinances in place; it would be nice, for example, if they restricted the footprint of the house to a certain %-age of the lot's area, and prescribed setbacks.

Well, we'll be watching.

Restrict footprint, prescribed setbacks. AND height. Wouldn't put it past someone to go up and up and up so high you'd need an elevator.

Most towns do have those restrictions but somehow they get out of them. I think that the town directors are like "sure, they will bring in so much money in taxes that we should let them do what they want"
grr. i just read in the paper this morning that our town is just one step closer to putting a stupid Wall-greens (you know what those are!) in the place of an old stage coach in.
but the inn needs some repair, so it should be knocked down. Or at least that is what the town says. However they are going to put a little memorial plaque next to the new store to show where the inn was.
great, that will more than make up for it.
I am just so disappointed i can't even describe it. I know that the person who owned the site had to sell it as they didn't have money to upkeep it but I still can't believe they will knock it down. how sad.
I am waiting for the day when someone knocks on my door and asks me to tear down my house because it needs some repairs or because it looks so much different than everyone else's house.
I have wrote the town historical society like 20 times asking about my house and about research (our house may have been built around or before 1850) Our town isn't much older than that. You think they would care but they don't seem to care at all.
how sad. What scares me the most is that my husband and I have put so much care into our house and I am afraid if we move someday that someone will just tear it down.
-renee

i'm having a hard time picturing these monstrosities w/ no yard. i lived in columbus, ohio for a long time and i saw some tear downs in hallowed upper arlington, but nothing too scary (tasteful, respectful of surroundings). most of the mcmansions have been built out in the boondocks (or what was once) in the north and west of town. that's another story.

the doctor/professional quote is hilarious! my husband is a doctor and we could NEVER afford most of these houses. and so we bought a beautiful old farmhouse and spend most of our time taking down wallpaper and yes, even pulling up carpet.

We live in a young town with the oldest homes being built in the 1950's.I have a passion for 1800's-early 1900's homes,so it's sad that this is happening in our country. Im writing this because of a case of eminant domain in our town.A rite -aid,(national chain drug store), located in a shopping center, wants to relocate to a corner downtown which presently houses an established chinese resturant.The city is allowing eminant domain practices in favor of rite-aid, so no more resturant.Im told eminant domain is a resurfacing practice that, if allowed to remove historic buildings and vintage residences from existence, will be a significnt loss for our country and it's roots.

We lived in the adjacent "college town " from 1979 - 2002. We finally couldn't stand it any more. They tore down almost all of the historical homes and built apts for the students. Then they paved over every sq ft of land they could find. The traffic was horrible past our house and is worse now , we are told. We moved to the adjoining non- college town in 2002 to an 1890 partially restored home in a registered historic district. We are so happy here and love the neighborhood. Our other town just ousted the city manager through sneaky means. They have witnesses to a developer saying he was glad the B!@##@$ was gone as he was costing them millions of dollars....his sin was trying to control growth and making them adhere to the codes....oh yeah that is a huge sin. If you speak out on cautious development you are against any according to the powers that be. It is very very sad.

Please, none of you visit Houston any time soon without a large supply of antacid. There is NO . . I repeat NO. . . zoning in the city of Houston. There are pockets of "deed restricted" neighborhoods that wear said distinction with pride. But the other charming older neighborhoods suffer terribly from tear-down McMansionitis. Nevermind that you can have on one street a house, a daycare, a car lot, a mechanic and another house. Truly odd!

This was one (of the several) reasons I did not take a job transfer there last year.

In my city they televise city meetings on the local cable channel. So you can watch the Design Review Board, the Planning Commission, the Board of Zoning Appeals, and the City Council Meetings. I think this is the only way for the average citizen to know what is going on in regards to development. I love to watch the Design Review Board because I love houses and floor plans. People who are in support or in opposition to the proposed project each have 5 minutes to speak in front of the board. All my TV watching will soon come in handy as my next door neighbor's house was sold and the new developer is probably going to tear the house down and build a monstrosity. So I may be making a trip down to the Design Review Board myself!

We're extremely lucky on my side of town that there is no land for anybody to build a McMansion. The other side of town, though, is another story ::sigh::

What I've noticed people doing, though, is renovating upward rather than out. My neighborhood's houses range from turn of the century to early 1930s. The general character of the house will remain intact, but 2 or 3 floors will be added on. The finished products look quite nice, but it's quite strange seeing very high pitches rising from an otherwise uniform row of pitches...

In Switzerland, they recognize that the view is valuable to everyone in the neighbourhood. When an infill house or an outside the current frame addition is planned, the owner must first build a stick framework outline so that the neighbours can comment on the effect of the planned structure on their property.

Only if the neighbourhood approves, after 30 days the new building is allowed to proceed.