What Gives

Searching around the new Raleigh Real Estate assessments ...

Did you know that some of the OTT award winners pay less tax than you and I?

Take a look.

Let's Reminisce

Frequent arguments For teardowns revolve around the obsolescence and size of older houses. Fallonia contends that more often the house is in the way of the desired lot. Stories exist on this blog about each of these examples, but I am re-posting some here together to help form the bigger picture.

Someone Said IT

and I point you to Bob Mulder's Point of View in today's News & Observer.

"Keeping house sizes in the existing neighborhood"

Only available in the print edition Opinion Page. It is worth finding a newspaper to read.

UPDATE Nov 26, a link is now available.
HERE

NEWFLASH

Text Change: Interim Infill Standards

BE THERE or Be Square

What If ...

Now here is one those good ideas that could catch on far and wide.

College Park 'Great Additions' tour combines historic homes, modern lifestyle


Andrea Stanley | SPECIAL TO THE SENTINEL
November 15, 2007

From cobbled streets to contemporary architecture, the College Park neighborhood of Orlando offers a blend of old and new.

The delicate act of bringing modern features into established homes provides the theme for this year's College Park Historic Homes Tour.

Now in its 17th year, the tour Sunday will include an assortment of homes that fit into the theme, "Great Additions."

"One of the main things that College Park residents are concerned about, said Jodi Rubin, chairwoman of the tour, is the tear-downs and replacement with monster houses, or the inappropriate additions that are really large."

"We are showing how you can live in a College Park house that is added on to and is still appropriate in size to maintain the historical exterior integrity of the home and charm of the street and still have the functionality of a modern home." ...

So, what if more neighborhoods decided to encourage and celebrate the great solutions utilized in updating older homes. After all, that is what brings the character to a place ... the best designs are solutions to problems, and the problem of adding space to a small well-built house is one that only the best builders can take on.

In this neck of the woods, generally 3 builders are responsible for the best renovations. All the rest of the signs, there are at least 10 at this time within a mile, are doing new builds in the over 3000 square foot range. Only one builder in the teardown craze has been known in these parts for a while. The rest are new to the game, many with names that are meant to evoke majesty, or the fortunes there of.

The historic character of a neighborhood has always been important to me. It is a shame to lose all of that to mediocre modern design. The historic fabric of a community kind of tells us where we came from. — College Park resident

Hot Off the Hot Potato

A Post on Talking About Politics reveals someone's view of the inner workings of the zoning text changes to be be discussed at the Nov. 20th City Council meeting. This wording matches a document being sent throughout the builder and development community. There is a movement afoot to derail this approach to saving the character of our older neighborhoods. Expect a crowd and a contentious debate as Raleigh wrestles with the definition of growth.



Without some text changes, growth will continue to mean this.

Back in the Day

I enjoyed this read at a fellow Raleigh blog. Reminded me of the good old days where the country was 12 minutes away in any direction. Particularly fun was the old Reedy Creek Road, which wound its way past the NCSU research farms, Umstead Forest, and Reedy Creek itself. Parts of its wildness still exist, other parts are getting developed or swallowed whole. There was one dirt road that was more ruts than than dirt. The old Valiant took to it like a Jeep.

But I digress.

The small-town-ness of Raleigh has given way to a pleasing mixture of small town, suburban, and now urban. This pleasant mixture will be forced to make some hard choices if economics rule the scene. We give up something unique every time an older home bites the dust. It is not just about the house, it is about a way of life. It hurts to see us haul it away.

Check out the story above. He has said it better than I.