Daily Real Estate News  |  October 15, 2007  |   Cities Find New Ways to Discourage McMansions
More than 300 communities in 33 states have imposed demolition delays, put limits on home square footage and created conservation districts, all designed to discourage teardowns and building McMansions.

One of the more innovative attempts is in Boulder County, Colo., which is considering requiring home owners and developers seeking to exceed 6,500 square feet in the flatland or 4,500 square feet in the mountains to purchase credits from owners of properties that are under those caps.

The scheme, although as yet untested, already has critics. "As house prices go up, people who sell their credits might regret it," says planner Lane Kendig, a principal of the Kendig Keast Collaborative in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, and author of an American Planning Association (APA) report on regulating homebuilding.

"The house won't be expandable. What if I have another kid and need the space?"

Source: Innovation & Design, Ted Smalley Bowen (October 2007)