McMansion

[Novacek]

The timing of this seemed appropriate:


In Defense of 'Mansionization'

[Novacek]

Since the Mueller thread below sort of widened into a discussion of the McMansion ordinance in general, I thought I'd start another thread.

So, I'm against the ordinance (I'm sort of in the land-rights and free-market urbanism camp). But that other thread got me to actually read through the text of the ordinance. And it seems there's still quite a bit that can actually be done under it, working within the exemptions that it allows. (of course, actually navigating those exemptions will require more $ via planning, architecture, surveying, etc.

For instance, will the ordinance eventually lead to more basements in Austin? (moving here from further north 10 years ago, the lack of basements in general in Austin is different from other areas of the country).

[tildahat]

Originally Posted by Novacek

Since the Mueller thread below sort of widened into a discussion of the McMansion ordinance in general, I thought I'd start another thread.

So, I'm against the ordinance (I'm sort of in the land-rights and free-market urbanism camp). But that other thread got me to actually read through the text of the ordinance. And it seems there's still quite a bit that can actually be done under it, working within the exemptions that it allows. (of course, actually navigating those exemptions will require more $ via planning, architecture, surveying, etc.

For instance, will the ordinance eventually lead to more basements in Austin? (moving here from further north 10 years ago, the lack of basements in general in Austin is different from other areas of the country).

Moving my comment from the other thread:

I don't like McMansions but I really dislike the McMansion ordinance as well. Now if it has said "you can build over X sf so long as you divide it into Y units, that would be different... But of course that's the opposite of the ANC's real motives.

One argument I've seen made by Muellerites in defense of 'The Gap' is that a family of four "can't live in" less than 2000sf. Which is, of course, absurd. My family of four has never lived in more than 1400sf, and may very will never depending on what house we end up buying. I'm OK going up to 1600-1800 if the house is the right one, but we honestly don't *want* more than that. Most people in other wealthy countries don't live in that much space either, Downton Abbey aside. Why do people in America feel they need so much space?

[Komeht]

McMansions are like emu's to coyotes - they're big, fat, easy, dumb, slow moving targets. And who the hell is going to come to their defense? I hate them, everyone hates them. I bet even the people who buy them by the boatload hate them. But you can't draft an ordinance that says don't build ugly, cheap Neo-Eclectic crap.

Having picked an easy target - ANC then rolled up their sleeves and got busy defining McMansions as virtually anything that is bigger than the house they live in and made damned sure that included duplexes, town homes, etc, no matter how compatible with the neighborhood, no matter how well designed, no matter how well built. The current ordinance is not about McMansions - it's about killing ALL development ANC is fearful of, whether or not it's a McMansion.

I'd probably be against the ordinance on purely philosophic grounds anyway, but the effects of the ordinance - driving families out of the inner city to the suburbs, rewarding wealthy homeowners at expense of small home owners, impeding densification of the urban core, impeding redevelopment of sub-standard housing, imposing addition tax burdens on everyone, controlling design, unthinking and uncritical reaction to neighborhood fears, creating a controlling miasma regulatory process are demonstrable and abhorrent and completely anti-urban results of the McMansion ordinance - what are the positive contributions to the city again?

IDK if it needs to be retooled or scrapped, but as drafted it falls on the draconian side of the scale and is completely inconsistent with the modern world Austin is entering. This is no longer 1968 in Austin, it's the 21st century and Austin is on the cusp of becoming a big city. It's time we start grappling with that reality rather than try to turn back a clock to be a city that Austin will never be again.

Let the suburbs draft suburban legislation.