A Wall Street Journal writer shares her family's experience in a neighborhood quickly being dominated by McMansions.
"Our three-bedroom, one-and-a-half bath, 2,400-sq.-ft. home, once among the largest in the neighborhood, will soon be among the smallest.... So we've made our peace with living within our home's boundaries. But we wondered: Would not keeping up with the Joneses hurt the home's resale value?
...People who are shopping for homes in a certain neighborhood expect certain amenities in those homes, says Kermit Baker, director of the remodeling futures program at Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. 'If you're not keeping up with other homes in the neighborhood, you may have home buyers walk away from it,' he says."
FULL STORY: How Do New McMansions Affect The Value of Neighboring Homes?
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
San Francisco's School District Spent $105M To Build Affordable Housing for Teachers — And That's Just the Beginning
SFUSD joins a growing list of school districts using their land holdings to address housing affordability challenges faced by their own employees.
Can We Please Give Communities the Design They Deserve?
Often an afterthought, graphic design impacts everything from how we navigate a city to how we feel about it. One designer argues: the people deserve better.
Engineers Gave America's Roads an Almost Failing Grade — Why Aren't We Fixing Them?
With over a trillion dollars spent on roads that are still falling apart, advocates propose a new “fix it first” framework.
The European Cities That Love E-Scooters — And Those That Don’t
Where they're working, where they're banned, and where they're just as annoying the tourists that use them.
Map: Where Senate Republicans Want to Sell Your Public Lands
For public land advocates, the Senate Republicans’ proposal to sell millions of acres of public land in the West is “the biggest fight of their careers.”
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Borough of Carlisle
Smith Gee Studio
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
Municipality of Princeton (NJ)