Unwanted McMansions Become Unwanted McBoarding Houses

Posted by: Nate Berg

5 September 2007 - 10:00am

Suburban Washington D.C. residents are upset over a rash of new buildings in their neighborhoods that they say don't fit in with the character of their communities. It's not just that the houses are too big, but that they are housing too many people.

"Builders are constructing large houses on small lots, knocking down trees, obstructing sunlight and destroying the character of the town."

"But in North Brentwood and other small municipalities in northern Prince George's County, mansionization comes with a twist: Some of the new homes, neighbors and town leaders say, are being used as boardinghouses for several families or unrelated people. Some are college students from the University of Maryland. Others appear to be immigrants."

"'Our concern with these McMansions is they are not single-family homes,' LaVerne Williams of Lewisdale told a group of county planners and elected officials in Riverdale. 'You are turning our communities into rooming communities.'"

Full Story: McMansions Turn 'McApartments,' Stirring Ire

Source: The Washington Post, September 4, 2007