Putting Homes On A Diet - McMansion

You have seen it all over the Valley, on quiet, tree-lined streets filled with modest, mid-century ranch homes, you suddenly encounter a humongous " Tuscan-Style" mausoleum that covers virtually every square inch of its lot and looms over neighboring back and side yards.

In an other scenario, in an RA-zoned neighborhood of substantial lots that was initially created to allow homeowners to keep horses,small farm animals and fowl, (Walnut Acares), one large large lot is being cleaved into three cramped parcels that will soon feature a trio of gigantic pseudo-Spanish monstrosities. Or may be you are driving along a hillside lot so steep even a mountain goat would not try to scale it, you see a construction crew trying to erect a 6,000 sq.ft. Mediterranean McManson before rains or seismic conditions let loose an avalanche of mud.

All three are common scenes in quaint suburban West Valley neighborhoods and along Mulholland corridor, substantially altering the character and look of communities and ceating a slew of problems for many homeowners.

Consider the McMansion. The Oxford English Dictionary defines McMansion as "a modern house built on a large and imposing scale, but regarded as ostentatious and lacking architectural integrity," as this Slate slideshow essay from last year points out. These Big Macs of architecture often are poorly designed, with no identifiable style, "like a badly mismatched outfit,".

As we see recently, the housing slowdown may signal the end for McMansions. Still there are plenty of these homes still around and we imagine that some folks will still find a way to build over-the-top houses.

This past summer the Planing Dept. held a number of open forums throughout the city to determine the need for-and possible scope of a new city ordinance to rein in the rampart proliferation of "McManson" and to curb the frequent "slicing and dicing of large suburban lots into flag lots and overly-dense communities. The resolution created by planing for the city council amends a number of key provisions in the existing Municipal Code and sets strict size, height and set back standard for any new home construction or adds ons.