Ranch vs. McMansion
Wayne Senville is on a trip across the U.S. on Route 50. He reports on how Creve Coeur, Missouri, is a well-kept suburb west of the city of St. Louis, is handling the trend of ranch homes are being torn down and replaced with McMansions.
"As Planning Director Paul Langdon, who just started in Creve Coeur nine months ago, explained to me, 'the market has left the existing Creve Coeur housing stock behind.' Simply put, there's a strong demand for much larger houses.
While the city is trying to develop some design guidelines, the ranch homes are not historic -- they're just what developed during a certain time period (which is what gives the neighborhoods their visual consistency). The city, noted Paul, needs to balance any design guidelines against the investment value people have in their property."
[Editor's note: Wayne Senville is editor of the Planning Commissioner's Journal, and is blogging daily about his fascinating trip across the United States on Route 50.]
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and your point is...?
I really don't see why the city should be trying to impose a 1950s urban form. If people want to buy McMansions and can't get them in Creve Coeur, they will get them in other suburbs further out. Why should Creve Coeur destroy itself by encouraging this? Aren't there already enough decaying inner suburbs near St. Louis?