Here in Tulsa we have a battle going on between people with two different points of view. On the one side, you have the home owners in older and sometimes historical neighborhoods in Tulsa. On the other side, you have prospective new home owners who are looking for a place to build.
The problem between these two groups is their view and understanding of redevelopment. The existing home owners don't want the new home owners to come into their neighborhoods because the new home owners are building houses that are too big for the existing neighborhoods. This happens when people look at these older neighborhoods, find a delapidated, uncared for, broken down house and buy the lot. Sometimes they get more than one lot. Then they tear down the old house and build their new bigger house. And the new bigger house is HUGE. These bigger houses have been nicknamed "McMansions" by those who dislike them.
Some people say that the bigger homes don't fit into the neighborhoods. They say that they are too big. And they say that they don't adhere to the architecture.
I think that there are a few things that have to be taken into consideration here...
-The existing home owners want redevelopment in their neighborhoods, but only a certain kind of redevelopment.
-The new home onwers who are building the bigger homes are bringing redevelopment and new life AND probably higher property values back into the neighborhood. Is this good or bad? Would you rather have an abandoned house in your neighborhood or a new, bigger house?
-IF the current property owners are successful in controlling the way people can build in their neighborhood, guess where those people can go? Yep...to the suburbs. ALL the suburbs around Tulsa welcome larger homes, higher property values and new development. And where are the growing school districts these days? Yep...in the burbs (private school enrollement within Tulsa is booming too.)
So the questions that remains is how to bring in redevelopment for older neighborhoods. And if you want that redevelopment, can you restrict people so that they only build the kind of house and size of house that you want? And IF you can get all that done, do you really think people will come and spend all that money to build what YOU want THEM to build?
Needless to say, this is a tough issue for all involved! Maybe 6 billion people on planet earth is starting to get a bit crowded!
Click here to see a pic of a McMansion in a mid-town neighborhood.
(Be sure you read the information included about new home construction.)
Comments(1)