LA Daily News: McMansion invasion

[question everything]

Los Angeles Daily News

McMansion invasion

Neighbors trying to fight off supersize homes on teensy lots
By Kerry Cavanaugh
Staff Writer

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - VALLEY VILLAGE -- When Sivert Glarum bought his ranch-style home two years ago, he relished its secluded back yard and sunny rooms.

Since then, his neighbor to the south added a second story to his own bungalow. His neighbor to the west, a developer, razed the home on the site and is now building three two-story homes -- one just 6 feet from Glarum's house.

"Our back yard is like a prison exercise yard now," Glarum said. "We have all these people in towers looking down on us. "Whereas we had privacy before, now we have none. We're all worried it's going to ruin the fabric of the area."

Glarum is one of a growing number of San Fernando Valley residents trying to rein in so-called mansionization, in which traditional ranch-style homes and 1950s-era bungalows are expanded or replaced by larger homes that cover much of the property.

(snip)

Burbank and Glendale have already adopted rules to limit large new homes that loom over their bungalow- and ranch-style neighbors. The Los Angeles City Council will consider an emergency anti-mansionization ordinance Wednesday for Sunland-Tujunga, which would ban homes larger than 2,400 square feet, as well as those with square footage that is more than 40 percent of the lot size.

Neighborhood groups in Valley Village and Valley Glen are developing similar regulations. In response, Councilwoman Wendy Greuel wants to craft a slate of regulations that could be adopted by neighborhood councils concerned with the development of large houses on small lots. The new rules would not regulate aesthetics or taste, Greuel said, but would allow communities to limit the size and scale of development.

(snip)

Kerry Cavanaugh, [phone] [e-mail]

http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2981119,00.html#

[Cush]

1. happens a lot here in Northern VA

happened in my neighborhood, someone bought a 1950's era house.....tore it down and had a big house built on the property (pretty much takes up all the property) Been like two years and it still isn't finished

[getmeouttahere]

2. Are these folks also speculators...

or are they just getting things done before the bubble bursts?

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

3. I live in Silicon Valley and this is happening everywhere...

I've moved twice in the last two years (first time, the apartments were sold and converted into condos, second time, the landlord broke up with her boyfriend and wanted to move back into her home).

In each instance, I had homes within spitting distance that were leveled to the ground and re-built as new three-story "McMansions."

At the first property, they knocked it down and are approaching the THIRD YEAR of building it. For the last two years, in that quiet little Silicon Valley suburban neighborhood, the house has stood there, looking like fallout from a hurricane.

They do a little work on it, stop, do a little more, stop...they sit on barstools in the garage at night chain-smoking cigarettes and watching the cars pass by. I'm sure the homeowners on that street think it's just nifty.

At the second property, it's on a T-I-N-Y little side street, with mostly small single family homes and townhouses. This new three-story beast looks like a WalMart or something. There's a three-story home directly behind it, and before the two-story original home was knocked down, the Lords of the Manor had a view. Now they do not.

[getmeouttahere]

4. Oh, that's lovely

I know we need to "build-up" more often, but I'm talking about apartments, not homes

[question everything]

5. I hope that their property taxes zoom as a result of this increase

and, of course, their utility bills, even in sunny California, are going to be high.

I've never liked home owner associations with their architectural rules, but perhaps there is something to it.

A friend who was teaching in business school wisely observed that if corporations - and, I suppose, individuals - would behave responsibly there would be no need for layers and layers of regulations.

[Gormy Cuss]

10. Interesting thing about the property taxes in California

Under Prop. 13, as long as one wall of the original structure is kept, the portion of the new construction that occupies the same square footage as the original house is not revalued. Only the additional square footage gets hammered at current rates. So, if one has owned a 2000 SF house for 10 years and chooses to replace it with a 4000 SF, half the taxes are based on your old rate and half are based on current market value. With the rise in values here, that means you would save a considerable chunk of change on taxes because half of the space would retain the Prop. 13 assessment for the old house even though it's brand new. The other half would be assessed at current market rates.

[madaboutharry]

6. I am convinced that this is just

another con-job put on the American people. They have been snookered into believing that this is what they need to live in in order to be considered successful. I am good friends with both a builder and a real estate agent who also are my two next door neihbors. We all live in "normal" size houses. Both of them have told me the same thing, that it is almost sad to watch people insist on living in 4,000 square foot houses that they can't afford. It is all for show. Their mortgages eat them alive. Then they have to spend another fortune buying stuff to put in these houses. I personally don't understand that kind of a choice.

[question everything]

7. And, sadly, this creates the illusion of a "humming" economy

that the middle class is doing fine. One has to wonder whether these people have any saving accounts, any retirement funds. While this can be true for the homeowners who have owned their homes for more than five years, who have been paying their mortgages and increased their equity, this will not be true for the ones who come on the cusp of the bubble.

And when the bubble burst and we have thousands of people out on the street with no funds at all to support them in their retirements, where will all the ones who applaud the "market forces" be?

[Johonny]

8. a 2 story house?

Oh no not 2 stories. Those bastards! I mean who wouldn't want to keep their historic 50s style house in LA. I mean the quality of those 50s houses is soooooooooooooo great. This seems like a huge non-issue. Given the horrible land prices in California, I have no problem with people tearing down the old house to build the house they really want.

[FourStarDemocrat]

9. In my village they passed a town ordinance in response to this.

It states that no property can be built or rebuilt larger than 50% of it's lot size.