"Tear-down" Phenomenon

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JHZR2

JHZR2

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It's so sad... so many nice places, some maybe needing a bit of work, but with that producing a superior result. Alas, Ms. Keepingupwiththejoneses has to show off her wealthy husband, BMW, Prada handbag and have the biggest, ugliest home on the street... the rest are old news... 100 years old and slate roofs? "LIKE U-G-L-Y." Victorian? "That was so 1899, older is like totally out".

Makes me sad as I see it happening in my hometown, and many of the towns that I would potentially like to live in.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060327/ap_on_re_us/mansionizing_history

JMH
 
What ever happened to the principle that if sombody owns a piece of property, that they get to decide (within reasonable and legal limits) what goes on on that property.

The sections of Houston Tx. that underwent mansionization from 1980 through 2000 ended up looking like wonderful new neightborhoods in the end. Sure there was some disruptions during the intermediate stages, but the final results speek for themselves.

Right now I am being held back from redeveloping a piece of property that I have owned for 9 years in a corner of Austin where the new growth is heading. This property would enable me to perform all daily activities except going to work WITHOUT having to even OWN a car--thus enabling me to do my part in saving whatever we can of the environment.
 
people without a sense or appreciation for history, then when it comes to the new decade they will want to remodel the inside and outside of their home because it's not trendy anymore...it's so 2000's.... i have always hated trendy folks, the fad followers.... it's irritating and sickening and they don't even know they have the disease.... there will always be someone richer, more trendy, a faster car, buffer.... bigger house, whatever.... just be happy with what you have, speaks volumes about these folk's sense of self and pride. They envy people who are more trendy or have a more expensive car.... when in reality it is the very same people who envy the richer/more trendy folks that deep down inside are really envious of the person who is happy with whatever they have....the simple pleasures... they just don't understand.

my girlfriend's aunt is like this.... she also uses her supposed beauty to get herself whatever she needs....because, afterall thats all she has....no brains, no personality, nothing, it's when the big 40 hits and the *** and **** sag and all the guys quit whistling that these kinda folks get hit with reality, you need money to stay trendy, no money no trendy....i'd rather live in a home from the 1800's than a new one, any day.
 
The thing that sucks is, say your family has lived in a town since that town's inception (like mine). Say that your family has owned a home that you live in since it was built in the early 1920s. Say that manymembes of your family live in your town, and the town has had a certain look to it, a certain architecture type, a certain look and feel.

Then, say somebody from somewhere far away buys the house next door, and tears it down and wants to build a mcmansion, that looks nothing like the other nearby homes. It takes up most of the lot, encroaches on the property lines on all sides, etc.

We have to suck it up, grin and bear it, regardless of what it does to us... Regardless of how it ruins the town that we've lived in, been a part of, enjoyed, etc., since the late 1800s. Great, gee thanks.

Yes, Mitch, I feel for you... It would stink that you cant redevelop land that would benefit you immensely.. But is the area in a WELL established neighborhood? Does that area have well-maintained homes dating to the early 1900s or earlier? IMO, sometimes a chunk of history, a certain feel and a certain look has a LOT of value.

Nobody would like it if I moved next door and turned my home into a pile of crap, complete with rats and garbage... Well, the mcmansions are my idea of a pile of crap with rats and garbage.

JMH
 
We've got these "historic preservation" bozos in our town. It's a committee of mean old ladies.

We don't have a historic district per se so they want lot-specific zoning. Basically they could drive around and if a house looks "pretty" they can lock that owner into his/her existing siding, paint color, roofing material, as well as preventing expansion or improvements on the property. There are no tax breaks nor property owner permission required.

It would be one thing if one could volunteer their property for this and gain some property tax benefit. I went to a town meeting and the law (we were trying to get it on the ballot for repeal) was cut and pasted from a town in Massachusetts
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without really considering our lack of a "district".

One can prevent or slow down McMansions simply by having large setbacks from the road and property lines, and grandfathering in existing building footprints.
 
quote:
Originally posted by eljefino:
It's a committee of mean old ladies.

Click to expand...
Well call me a mean old lady then...

Granted rules like that need to be well thought out for the exact place.

JMH
 
In Long Beach, CA where I live, there are a lot of great craftsman-style homes and beachy bugalows.

There's also a strong historical society that really has the authority to limit what you want to do to the exterior of your home. So you can't buy a great craftsman home and assume you can tear it down. Not gonna happen.

The historical society generally does a great job. Sometimes, you read articles about them overstepping their bounds, but there are some fantastic areas in the city that maintain that old-school charm. And the housing prices in these areas is quite strong.
 
why would you want a mcmansion in what is basically a suburb? it's like mansion tract homes? yuck! I'd rather own a large piece of property with a nice home, I don't care about the neighbors, infact I don't want any.
I believe in historical societies if the property is historical. otherwise is would be strip malls and tract homes everywhere, aka urban sprawl.
 
Personally, I'd rather have a smallish house, and the kids playing in the yard...these days there oren't yards.

JHZR2, I know what you mean about your favourite places being dismembered. My favourite place, and all my favourite memories lie in a town called Daylesford. All the big blocks have been sold, and cleared to build yuppieville.

That being said, I KNOW that my current abode isn't worth extensively renovating, as potential buyers will likely take the big block with rear lane access, and put a couple units on it.
 
I've been visiting Delray Beach for over 20 years. Our family has property there. The real estate boom has gone crazy there.

I don't know if you guys have a feel for home construction in Florida, but the homes really take a beating from the salt air and climate. Some of the old construction is such that it is nearly impossible to restore the homes without rebuilding from the ground up... unlike here up north where at least the shell of the house is usually in good condition.

Don't get me wrong. I love old homes and believe old homes should be restored. It pains me to see what used to be a beautiful Detroit disappear little by little. But it is so different in Florida.
 
I never quite got the historic society thingie. I almost bought the Wilson Estate in Reading's Museum district. It was a magnificent home. That was until I found out that, with no assistance, no relief ..no incentives ..I would have to 100% maintain it according to the "rules". Effectively someone else was going to dictate how much I was going to spend on MY property. Now one surely wants to maintain the integrity of such distinctive style. Copper flashings and gutters (
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$$$) ..Lead stained glass thingies here and there. Tin roof ....etc...etc.. wrought iron fence with fancy brass pointy things on the top of each.

Now I go with the intent here. But it smells (and I mean STINKS) of something along the lines of "unfunded mandate". Check that ..it's a mandate that is funded by someone else than those who mandate it.

I knew of one guy who owned a property in the village of Uwchland (pronounced Uke-land). It was nothing special ..just a house at a convergence of semi meaningless roads that major thoroughfares had developed around. It was declared an historic sight. He couldn't put siding or anything else on it ..so it sat and deteriorated. So much for the preservation
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Gary, I've also heard horror stories like that.

Thanksfully, most folks in my area report good things. Though there are those who have run into problems.

Likely depends on how rigid the historical society is.

But I can see the point of wanting to do whatever you want to a house that you own. Two side to every issue, I guess.
 
Well, let me back up a bit here...

Unless youre colonial Williamsburg or a similar type of thing, keeping things historic/original to a 'T' is kind of an annoyance.

There is a difference between trying to make everything look original liek it did when the place was first built, and keeping a look that is in line with the general feel.

Someone down the street changed their wood siding and cedar shake home to a vinyl sided top. Does it look the best? Does it look original? no... But was the home torn down and a ginormous monstrosity put there? no...

Its one thing to improve the shell of the home, you still have the original looking shell, and not that much that you can do to it would ever make it change that radically in look... But when the shell gets torn down and this ugly heap gets put in next to 100 year old victorians... the neighborhood is ruined.

JMH
 
Again, the way you solve this sorta stuff is to plan in advance. You nix the thought of tear downs in the zoning of given neighborhoods so not to create architectural clashes. You don't want something like WildWood NJ occuring ..while you may want something like Cape May NJ occuring. That way the speculator/neo-yuppie/whatever won't consider buying in a given neighborhood and radicalize the view.

OTOH, I really think that, in general, urban renewal is just a very wise thing to do. It's how you go about it that makes the difference between seamless integration with the flavor/motif/heritage and having an oddity and neo eyesore.
 
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A guy at work has a property with a very old (prolly 120-130 years old) stone house on it, and a more recent (say 50 years) primary residence on it.

The stone house is heritage listed and virtually beyond repair, and has blackberrys growing out the windows. He can't knock it down, and if he does anything to it, it's legally a full resto, and expensive. So he leaves it rot.

My boss and I were driving past, and he stated that "someone should make ***** fix that house up...it's a discrace to have a heritage house decaying like that".

Fine, I replied, would you support a $100 increase in your rates to contribute to the restoration ?

Answer...of course not.

BTW, we have an old chimney heritage listed at work. We must maintain it, and preserve it, but being on a pwoer station, no-one can see it.
 
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quote:
We must maintain it, and preserve it, but being on a pwoer station, no-one can see it.
Click to expand...
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I worked for a short time (well a year actually) at Saint Gobain's performance plastic division. They had some sacred tree behind the plant. It must have had a near 10 foot diameter trunk (this is how it appears in my head anyway -let's just call it unusually large). I forget what it is. Anyway ..there's a rail spur that just sorta "stops" right there in front of the tree. The plant kinda wraps around most of the land near it.

It's the greatest thing that no one will ever see. No one visits a plastics plant ..and if you do ..you're tresspassing. Gotta love these oddities of necessities in terms of preservation.
 
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