McMansions

McMansions on the Chopping Block?
Residents of unincorporated Boulder County may soon no longer be able to build homes as big as their dreams.

The county commissioners are expected to vote this fall on regulations they believe would mitigate the impact of large homes on the county’s rural character and resources.

At the July 10 meeting, the commissioners asked staff to draft regulations that would prevent homeowners from building homes on the plains bigger than between 6,500 and 7,000 square feet or from adding on to existing homes to make them bigger than that without purchasing development rights/credits. For the mountains, residents would have to purchase development rights/credits to build or expand homes that would exceed between 4,500 and 5,000 square feet. Both proposed sizes include garages and basements and are about twice as big as what was previously proposed.
The move comes as the median size of a new home in unincorporated Boulder County grew from 5,189 square feet in 2004 to more than 8,000 square feet this year.

The commissioners’ argument is that bigger homes – even those built using green building techniques – are still not sustainable because of the amount of resources associated with both their construction and on-going use, said Michelle Krezek, manager of special projects for the county. As such, those homeowners should have to off-set that resource use by buying development rights/credits that allow the county to purchase open space elsewhere.

County staff members also are researching unique thresholds for Special Character Areas, such as Gold Hill, Eldora and Allenspark, as the board wants to provide them with particular protection, Krezek said.

The commissioners also want to allow property owners who either have or want smaller homes the opportunity to not only sell a portion of their “unused” square footage for a one-time payment, but also have lower ongoing tax assessments on their smaller homes, she said. Doing so will diversify the housing stock and allow people of “varied means” to own homes in Boulder County.

Krezek said the growth of the median size of new homes, along with homeowners substantially adding onto a smaller home – such as building a 6,000-square-foot addition on to a 2,000 square-foot home – or demolishing an existing home to replace it with a much bigger home, is affecting the diversity of housing in the county.

However, the proposed regulations are meeting a fair amount of opposition. Many homeowners, concerned with how the regulations will affect their ability to build their dream home or add on to their existing homes, have spoken against the proposal.

But Ken Hotard, senior vice president, public affairs, of the Boulder Area Realtor Association, said the issue goes beyond individual property rights to the appropriate process for addressing the problem.

“I frankly don’t know whether they should or shouldn’t do something like this,” he said, noting the county already has significant control over home size through zoning, planning review and other regulations.

“Tools exist today that if they were revised they could materially affect home size in an appropriate context that is in relationship” to neighboring properties and the character of the area, Hotard said. Go to http://www.baraonline.com/news/insite/y2007/july/wk12/n1181770336_360399 for more of Ken Hotard's position on the proposed "McMansion regulations.

By RE/MAX of Boulder, Inc.