Scott Van Voorhis
Monstrously huge homes are back, and so is the backlash against them.
McMansions became a symbol of excess a decade ago, before falling out of fashion after the Great Recession and the collapse of the real estate bubble. The average size of new homes in the U.S. even fell for the first time in years.
Now big homes are back with a vengeance, prompting blowback in upscale towns across the Boston area where teardowns of older, more modestly sized homes has become a fact of everyday life.
A group of disgruntled Needham homeowners has formed “Restore Needham” to push for restrictions to stop builders from jamming ever larger McMansions onto small lots that were once home to modest Capes, ranches and Colonials. In a case that has become a lightning rod, one of these new monstrosities has reached five stories in height, noted Paul Dawson, a developer and architect who helped found Restore Needham.
The group is not trying to stop teardowns, but instead is working to ensure that the new homes that are built on these lots don’t overwhelm the neighborhood.
“They are intrusive,” Dawson said. “They crowd their sites and they crowd their neighbors and the scale is much larger. That exacerbates a feeling of crowding.”
“What’s happening over time is the whole character of the town is changing,” he said.
Backlash is also building in Wellesley, Newton and Arlington, as well as Truro and Wellfleet on the Cape.
The ever larger homes taking shape across Greater Boston are in line with national trends that have seen the average size of new construction spiral upwards since a modest decline from 2008 to 2009.
The median size of new homes in the U.S. hit a record 2,540 square feet, up from its recession dip to 2,159 square feet. The average size is even bigger, weighing in at over 2,700 square feet, federal stats show.
Five Stories In Needham
However, the new homes taking shape in the Boston area on lots cleared of smaller, older homes are often two or three times as large as the average and already very large American home.
Just take the budding battle in Needham, sparked by a builder who put up a 5-story house on quiet Wachusett Road that now towers over its neighbors.
This 55-foot-tall, 6,000-square-foot house now sprawls over a site that once was occupied by a modest ranch, according to Dawson, who lives across the street from the new mega McMansion.
Dawson said he didn’t have a problem with a new house being built there – that is, until the frame of the fourth and fifth stories started going up.
Poking around, Dawson discovered that the builder had maneuvered around the town’s zoning rules, which would ordinarily not allow a 5-story home, by classifying the first two floors as “basement” levels.
The house, which is now on the market for $1.9 million, has left Dawson feeling crowded on his own, older and not insubstantial 2-story house. Originally built in the 1920s, Dawson renovated it and put on an addition.
Among other things, his new neighbors will be able to peer over his roof and down into his back patio.
“I got involved because a monstrous house was built across the street from mine,” Dawson said. “It was unlike anything I had ever seen before in Needham – it was shockingly large.”
Taking action, Dawson teamed up with other disgruntled homeowners, including one who now faces flooding from stormwater runoff from a huge house built next door after another teardown.
Restore Needham will get a chance to air some of its concerns at Town Meeting this fall, with the Needham’s Planning having endorsed one of its proposals to close the basement loophole.
Other towns are also seeing an upsurge in protest and proposals aimed at corralling supersized homes.
As teardowns mount, the Wellesley Historical Commission is pushing for a demolition delay bylaw, while teardowns and the huge, neighborhood dominating homes that often seem to replace them have stirred debate in Newton and Arlington.
The Cape has also become a hotbed of McMansion resentment.
In Truro, town officials are locked in a legal stalemate, having spent more than $200,000 in legal fees as they try to enforce a demolition order against the 8,333-square-foot Kline House. The palatial house has stoked the ire of Truro officials and residents since it was built next door to the iconic Hopper House, where painter Edward Hopper spent his summers.
Dozens of residents recently turned out for a meeting to discuss potential zoning changes to rein in the construction of McMansions, with Truro currently having no caps on how large new homes can go.
Neighboring Wellfleet a few years ago capped new homes at 2,800 square feet on land overseen by the National Seashore after a 5,817-square-foot McMansion shot up on a prominent dune at the start of Great Island.
However, the debate is not over whether there should be teardowns; that cat has been out of the bag for some time now.
It’s too bad. The relentless trend of teardowns and mansionization we are seeing is slowly but surely destroying the already scarce supply of middle-class homes, helping further drive up prices.
Still, you have to start somewhere, and capping the size of some of these monstrosities is as good a place as any.
