Revenue or Restoration?
You remember the reaction here over the impending teardown of 169 Rockingstone Avenue? Check out the comments.
As one reader wrote, “There are clearly two sides to this discussion – there are those who have no compunction against razing older houses and replacing them with huge new ones capable of increasing the city’s revenues, and there are those who value and want to keep the older, smaller houses for a whole other set of reasons.”
Do we build McMansions if the Villages and Towns allow us? Or do we preserve character and history?
Now, a realtor presents the house that will be built on the fifth-of-an-acre lot.
May I point out that the Realtor’s listing is an “Artist’s Rendition.” It may have little connection to what actually will be built at 169 Rockingstone Ave. The one-fifth acre site is not a rectangle, more triangular. This big 5-bedroom house will have to be placed closer to the public sidewalk, making it seem even more looming. Certainly no room for the greenery shown in the picture. Perhaps the fuss being made about this particular house is because the new buildings that have sprouted in Larchmont Woods in the past year are almost all banal, boring, insipid, unwelcoming, cookie-cutter McMansions.
Not good.
Thank you, Phyllis, for saying what I elected not to say. I was going to call them huge, ugly, character-less abominations. You did it for me.
For what it’s worth, the house now on the corner of Rockingstone and Forest looks almost exactly like the artist’s rendering. The builder was the same as the house planned for 169 Rockingstone. (And yes, banal and boring.)
The crazy thing is that someone with deep pockets is actually going to buy it. That’s why the developers keep doing this. But let me tell you, as one who knows, it’s hard to look out your window every single day at something like that sitting directly across the street where a cute little cottage once stood.
You keep allowing this to happen in your community, you keep acting like you have no voice, and that’s exactly what your future holds. But if you go to the BOL meetings, go to the zoning committee meetings, get involved, maybe you can nip this. Maybe. At least you’ll have fought the good fight. And there are actually small changes you can make. For example, we were able to insist on a few alterations to the plans on the McMansion across the street from us because we went to the meetings before construction was underway. Smaller windows, fewer dormers, that sort of thing. These houses all end up looking alike anyway, so it’s not as if the purchaser is going to know or care. But it might make a tiny difference in how offensive it is to you in the end. And if there are enough people voicing their outrage, as naive as it sounds, maybe the city will actually begin to listen. Maybe?