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Your new neighbor. November, 2004. |
4. Play the waiting game.
I live in the People's Republic of Boulder County in Colorado. The Libs in this area have made a science out of violating people's property rights using tactics such as those listed in this article. If you let this sort of mentality get a foothold in your community you are headed down a path of NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard) and will have hordes of IGMEELs (I Got Mine, Everybody Else Leave). This will not only steal people's legitimate property rights, but will tear neighborhoods apart by pitting neighbors against neighbor. I know. I have seen it in spades! Lastly, your community will become an "elite" area where average folks cannot afford to live and your children will have to leave when they grow up. Minorities will be driven out by economics and "trust babies" who have no idea how to work for a living will take over.
If you care about these kinds of issues, you might consider attending the National Property Rights Conference that will be in Sandusky, OH on Sep 10-12. If folks like Freepers don't help defend property rights against the Libs, we are in big trouble!
I watch behemoths rise in the resort lakeside developments not too far from my own rural area. I've concluded that it is very difficult to make a house over 7000sq ft attractive. Houses this big look like overweight people look--swollen and ungraceful. Bloating walls out to the edges of lots that cannot be large enough to contain it. Houses this big need more than an acre, and really more than two.
And the obvious efforts to attract attn are vulgar and ugly as well--like one house I've seen on the promentory of a water lot, painted bright white. Your eye must fasten on that structure rather than the water around it--but the locals have taken to calling it "Alcatraz." It does have rather the look of an enormous correctional facility.
We look at all the new models in all the new neighborhoods. With just 3 of us, we don't really need a 5 br house or 3500 square feet or a big mortgage. We always breath a little easier when we come home to our heavily wooded neighborhood of modest, older homes.
Hey, to each his own. And yes, sometimes I envy the big rooms, closets, gourmet kitchens, garden tubs, and screened in porches. But thank God we live in a free country where a McMansion is only a decision and signature away if we want it.
Hmmm. Let's see....I can't have a large home b/c that would make my neighbors envious and therefore, I am evil, I can't drive an SUV b/c it might be a bigger car then my neighbors car and I would have to use more gasoline which must mean that I am rich and therefore, I am evil. I have a good idea. Let's do away with the American Dream and require everyone to drive the same, small vehicle and all live in small homes. I have another idea. Let's all wear uniforms too........
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Your new neighbor. November, 2004. |
Your big house neighbor will be paying more taxes on his palace, which will ease the tax burden on your shotgun shack.
I figure when we do this addition, several families on the street who had been thinking of moving to a larger house, but didn't really want to leave the neighborhood, might consider remodeling theirs since we'd be giving them cover and theirs wouldn't be overpriced for the neighborhood. We're willing to take that chance, but we live on a lovely cul de sac, so I don't think we'll do too badly since we likely won't be in the market to sell for another 10 years!
It's something like that here --- they're building 3000-4000 sq ft homes on postage stamp yards so the neighborhood is working on zoning rules that land can't be sold in less than 2 acres which should help the problem.
There are only two legitimate approaches to prevent an adjacent property owner from building whatever he/she wants (assuming it's not a real safety hazard or something).
1.) Politely attempt to persuade the owner to do something else.
2.) Persuade the owner to sell you the property.
Anything else is totalitarianism. If these don't work,
3.) Shut up and MYOB, or
4.) Move somewhere else.
How to stop a McMansion next door?
1. Offer to pay more for the land than any other potential neighbors.
There are no other ways to be sure unless it's YOUR property....... Otherwise, quit whining.
"Big" is a relative term. The biggest may be old Victorians in the city centers or smalll towns that are enormous and cost much to renovate and update...not to mention the cost of heating them. A 3000 + sq ft home may be more cost efficient than a 1500 sq ft home. It all depends on the construction, materials, and latest technology used in the siting and building.
I wonder why she forgot to point her critical finger as well at Ted Turner, he of the thousands of acres and mega mansions.
Paraphrasing the lines here in an exchange between Dr Yuri Zhivago and his half-brother, Yevgrav, who is a bolshevik police commissar. Yuri has just returned to Moscow to find his house has been requisitioned and divided among something like 12 families:
Yevgrav: There was room for 12 families here in this house alone!
Yuri (feigning agreement): Yes, it's much more fair this way.
Yevgrav: We have cut out the tumors of injustice!
Yuri (looking at the once glorious house and city now a slum in shambles): You cut out the tumors of injustice, but you failed to preserve the vital organs!
Funny, isn't it? That CNN would publish an article largely in agreement with the bolsheviks of Russia?
What the hell can I do about that?
I think people should shut up.. Whatever happend to private property?
