Death of the McMansion? (designer, furniture, summer)

[totallyfrazzled]

Originally Posted by OhBeeHave

...laws, which commonly set maximums for height and square footage on a sliding scale that varies with the lot size. ...."

IMHO fewer people would have issues with the McMansion if the highlighted text were taken into account prior to the construction of a home in an area which does not properly support the enormity of the proposed structure.

The ironic thing is that such lot:structure square footage ratio zoning codes do exist in some LI townships. Friends of ours who wanted to expand their 1960s house in West Islip by adding a greatroom extension were denied by the town (theirs was on a 75x150 lot) because it would have increased the square footage above the allowed percentage.

So they were denied, and yet one can drive around West Islip today and see several teardown/rebuilds that clearly take up more than the supposedly allowed percentage of lot square footage as per town code. Now, whether these builders applied for a variance and were granted it, is another question... WHY those particular builders were granted a variance when someone else was not, is an especially interesting question.

I think the common perception is that some people can get permissions from the Town(s) for things that might be denied to somebody else. Who knows how much influence the "who is asking" factor really has? None? a little? a heck of a lot? Who knows?

[nancy thereader]

That was the 1st thing that came to mine when I seen that Mcmansion photo KFC posted. It looks very similiar if I remember correctly

Well, he's such a classy guy.....

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by totallyfrazzled

The ironic thing is that such lot:structure square footage ratio zoning codes do exist in some LI townships. Friends of ours who wanted to expand their 1960s house in West Islip by adding a greatroom extension were denied by the town (theirs was on a 75x150 lot) because it would have increased the square footage above the allowed percentage.

So they were denied, and yet one can drive around West Islip today and see several teardown/rebuilds that clearly take up more than the supposedly allowed percentage of lot square footage as per town code. Now, whether these builders applied for a variance and were granted it, is another question... WHY those particular builders were granted a variance when someone else was not, is an especially interesting question.

I think the common perception is that some people can get permissions from the Town(s) for things that might be denied to somebody else. Who knows how much influence the "who is asking" factor really has? None? a little? a heck of a lot? Who knows?

I am not familiar with Islip's zoning laws, enforcement or lack thereof.

However....
Southampton has zoning based on 45 deg angles, cubic volume, lot lines and the structure's height. This is called the pyramid law.

"Pyramid Law.
[Added 12-22-1992 by L.L. No. 55-1992; amended 11-14-1997 by L.L. No. 38-1997; 6-10-1997 by L.L. No. 47-2003; 8-26-2003 by L.L. No. 65-2003; 5-13-2008 by L.L. No. 30-2008]
(1) Except on lots in the Village Business (VB) District, Office District (OD), Hamlet Office/Residential (HO) District, Hamlet Commercial/Residential (HC) District, or Light Industrial (LI-40 and LI-200) Districts, all buildings and structures on any lot in any district must remain within the sky plane of the lot. The sky plane shall begin at allproperty lines from the average elevation of the existing natural grade (prior to any site disturbance) adjacent to that building or structure and extend inward at an angle of 45°. Notwithstanding any language in this subsection, the maximum height limitation for a building or structure in the dimensional tables of this chapter (§§ 330-11, 330-34 and 330-38)
Editor's Note: The Tables of Dimensional Regulations are included at the end of this chapter.

shall not be exceeded at any point unless the structure is one exempted under Subsection A hereof. An illustration depicting a typical elevation view showing the control of height of buildings and structures under this subsection is included at the end of this chapter."



http://ecode360.com/documents/SO0286...ion%20View.pdf


http://www.town.southampton.ny.us/De...priateness.pdf (see page 15)

27east - Real Estate - Illegal building must be scaled down
27east - Southampton News - Hampton Bays CAC opposes proposed code changes
Southampton News

[sean sean sean sean]

Originally Posted by OhBeeHave

Leafing through Nassau Count Long Island in Early Photographs 1869 - 1840 Weidman & Martin (1981) yields the first glimpse of an earlier Wantagh (ca. 1929) It's an aerial view of the Wantagh SpurIn the left foreground of the picture is a small development of new bungalows with garages to the rear of the building. They are situtated just north of Merrick Road and appear to be Willow St, Cypress St & Beech St. It states that in 1925 a three-room (yes, room not bedroom) house sold for $3,500. Looking at Google Earth, it would appear that some of the old garages still stand, and perhaps 2 of the bungalows on Willow may not have been significantly altered. Sadly, everything around them is crammed into small lots, and a lot which housed one of those little bungalows now has a monstrosity of outlandish proportions shoe-horned into the lot.

Great post, I have that same book! Wish there was more about Wantagh/Levittown but most areas are covered very well. I kill a lot of time on this website when I'm bored...you have to use your imagination a little bit, but it's neat.

BTW, Jerusalem River still exists, though you won't find it marked on any maps as it's largely just a drainage sump that runs from Levittown to East Bay (through Twin Lakes/Mill Pond) now. The neighborhood near Forest Lake Elementary School is the one you're speaking of....it was built much like all the neighborhoods south of Merrick Road - all landfill. Strange....

I'd be hard pressed to say how disproportionate that one McMansion is without seeing the rest of the neighborhood. There might only be a smidgen of room between the original ranches on the block as well....plus the picture is on an angle so it's very hard to say. The one thing about the design that kills me is the roofline, it's just silly looking. I'm sure the materials used are junky and only look good from that distance, in a low-res pic....but all in all, the lines (save for the roof) are fairly clean and it's a unified, attractive look. Take that roof down 15 feet, it destroys the looks.

Sean as much as I know what you're saying is true. That accounts for 10% of the houses currently standing in Wantagh and bellmore. The remaining 90% really don't have any historical value, they may be nice houses, but I wouldn't say any could possibly apply for any kind of landmark status in 100 years, they were just built there to a price point almost identical to the house next to it.

But Chris, this hasn't always been the case! The McMansion-itis of the last decade in Wantagh Woods has taken nothing but classic pre-WWII homes, sadly. Wantagh Avenue used to be lined with Victorians and other intersting suburban artifacts....I've seen really old pictures and it looked totally different. Much classier, IMO....I don't understand the need to build something that looks more expensive when there were a large number of perfectly good homes in the neighborhood to begin with. I also agree with AlexisT, the sprawl-era developments in Nassau have aged well....even in Wantagh - where there basically aren't any. The whole street grid of the town was almost fully laid out going back to the 20s/30s. Anything newer is just infill.

[hotkarl]

I know this in an old topic, but I just had to add my 1 cent...
I've noticed the complaints about McMansions being eyesores, and I couldn't agree more, the sight of them absolutley makes my skin crawl.

Now, I'm not so much talking about new developments and tracts and such,
I'm talking about the greedy contractor who bought the old house on a large lot, and subdivided it and put up 2, sometimes 3 McMansions right smack in the middle of a block and ruined the cohesive look and charm of the block.
You know what I mean...A nice tree lined street with neat and tidy capes, maybe a small ranch or 2 here and there, and BANG! right in the middle of the block is this vegatationless monstrosity. Especially when you've got nice cedar shakes, or vinyl siding homes and there is the Faux Stucco pimple right in the middle of your ass.
Thanks guys. Thanks for ruining my town. I hope the Hummer and hot tub are worth what you've done to the quality of life here.

[sean sean sean sean]

Couldn't have said it better myself, hotkarl!

[hotkarl]

True story, when I was selling my last house I actually had people turned off by the fact that right next to my house, right smack in the middle of the block, were these 2 monstrosities. My block was mostly craftsman style ranch homes, with a few being dormered up to have a colonial look, but everything meshed nicely, the block had a certain quaint little look to it until...

King Kongtractor came...
Bought the single oversized lot, knocked down the little 2 bedroom ranch and garage, and put up these 2 massive, I don't even know what you would call them. Totally cleared the lots as well, no vegetation or landscaping whatsoever. Plenty of cement, and a little bit of grass. Ugly as sin, and totally ruined the look of the block.
And, to top it off, the person that bought the houses,(yes houses, same person bought both)had them re-zoned for Mother-Daughter, but actually converted one into 3 illegal aprtments, and the other into 2.
So I ended up living next to 2 motels. Renters suck btw...

So that's my personal experience with McMansions. But I see it everywhere, it disgusts me when I'm driving down a nice street somewhere, and all of a sudden...there they are, in all their faux stucco or brickfaced glory.
And now, many of them are sitting there vacant, & unattended.
Grass up to your waste. All the jackass contractors who put these things up everywhere they could thinking they were going to get telephone numbers for them until the market crashed. Well, now their 800K house is worth 450-500K in some neighborhoods, with the 12 or 14K a year taxes. Good luck trying to recap your investment.

Karma...aint it a *****?

[Chrisk327]

Sounds like a call to the town is in order for the illegal apartments...........

yeah, depending on how its done, the breaking up lots can kill the charm on a block...... unfortunately it is what it is. If things are done in compliance with zoning laws, you can't do anything about it.

Not sure where anyone is, but if you know bellmore/wantagh, on the boarder is Oakfield rd. they knocked down a delapidated ranch (not all that bad to do) They put up 3 houses on the property. 1 in front, 2 behind it iwth a shared driveway going to the street. Houses look terrible (to me), no attention to detail, looks like builders grade crap, at least 1 too many houses on the property, if not 2. The builder has had them on the market for almost 2 years. A series of bad decisions for the future homeowners as well as the neighbors finnally came to roost.

[hotkarl]

Originally Posted by Chrisk327

Sounds like a call to the town is in order for the illegal apartments...........

yeah, depending on how its done, the breaking up lots can kill the charm on a block...... unfortunately it is what it is. If things are done in compliance with zoning laws, you can't do anything about it.

Not sure where anyone is, but if you know bellmore/wantagh, on the boarder is Oakfield rd. they knocked down a delapidated ranch (not all that bad to do) They put up 3 houses on the property. 1 in front, 2 behind it iwth a shared driveway going to the street. Houses look terrible (to me), no attention to detail, looks like builders grade crap, at least 1 too many houses on the property, if not 2. The builder has had them on the market for almost 2 years. A series of bad decisions for the future homeowners as well as the neighbors finnally came to roost.

Yup yup. Same thing here. Like squeezing 10 lbs of lard in a 5 lb jar.
And they are just sitting there festering.
They cut the grass maybe 2x in the summer.

[OhBeeHave]

Originally Posted by hotkarl

I know this in an old topic, but I just had to add my 1 cent...
I've noticed the complaints about McMansions being eyesores, and I couldn't agree more, the sight of them absolutley makes my skin crawl.

Now, I'm not so much talking about new developments and tracts and such,
I'm talking about the greedy contractor who bought the old house on a large lot, and subdivided it and put up 2, sometimes 3 McMansions right smack in the middle of a block and ruined the cohesive look and charm of the block.
You know what I mean...A nice tree lined street with neat and tidy capes, maybe a small ranch or 2 here and there, and BANG! right in the middle of the block is this vegatationless monstrosity. Especially when you've got nice cedar shakes, or vinyl siding homes and there is the Faux Stucco pimple right in the middle of your ass.
Thanks guys. Thanks for ruining my town. I hope the Hummer and hot tub are worth what you've done to the quality of life here.

That's how I feel about the McMansion. When placed in a community of other McMansions they're fine; but when they are completely out of scale, proportion & style within their surroundings, they are God awful.

Don't plotz a faux stucco palazzo in a neighborhood of Craftsmen bungalows.

Don't carve up what was once a single, over-sized lot into a lots which do not conform with the average lot size in the community.

Don't permit a 34' high house in a neighborhood of 20' high homes.

Planning board: if they need 2 or more variances, perhaps it would be wise to DENY the application!

A huge home in the wrong location is like contracting herpes; once you have it it never goes away and spreads to others if you're not careful.