Jul 7, 2008 7:00 pm US/Eastern
Suburb 'McMansion' Craze Creeps Into The Boroughs
Homeowners Building Bigger Houses, Putting Squeeze On Land
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Some homeowners are now building bigger houses and it's putting the squeeze on land. It's beginning to sound a lot like the Hatfields versus the McCoys, as tiny homes on 40 ft. by 100 ft. lots are being bulldozed for homes twce the size.
CBS
The McMansion craze of the suburbs is creeping into the boroughs.
Some homeowners are now building bigger houses and it's putting the squeeze on land. It's beginning to sound a lot like the Hatfields versus the McCoys, as tiny homes on 40 ft. by 100 ft. lots are being bulldozed for shiny new houses that are twice the size. It has the neighborhood crying foul.
They're big, they're bold and sometimes even glint with gold. Not suburban McMansions, this is the new face of Queens.
And they belong almost exclusively to Bucharian Jews, immigrants who've come by the tens of thousands from the former Soviet Union to settle in Kew Gardens, Forest Hills and other small, some say historic, neighborhoods.
"I think the reason the houses look lavish compared to next door neighbors is that you want to utilize every single inch of the land possible without breaking the law," said Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov.
Nisanov says it's a way of life for his community of big families and big homes to hold them. Others disagree.
"The public in residential communities is overwhelmingly against the over development we've been experiencing and the out of character construction and people want more greenery," said Queens Councilman Tony Avella.
Avella says current zoning laws have loopholes that are being exploited to tear down a 2000 square-ft. home and build a three or four-story house with nearly double the square footage.
"We're not ruining the neighborhood, we're improving it, we're making it nicer," said Samuel Tabigol. "Everything is being done legally to building zones rules."
Nisanov added on to make his own oversized synagogue, emphasizing he got all the zoning variances needed to build. While some decry the loss of green space when laws are paved over, says Nisanov, the grass needed is instead "sacrificed," not lost.
Zoning for one-family homes has been changed in some neighborhoods to put the brakes on the practice, but not quickly enough. Avella is pushing to create architectural districts, where home design and size could be reigned in.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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