zorg wrote: Fri Feb 11, 2022 7:41 am
Ok, first of all, I am not a fan of Mr. Chapelle, but I am a even lesser fan of shitty tract housing developers. Yes, I am turning this into a thunderdome.
Like most news stories these days, the headlines are way off base, and people bring out the pitchforks right away.
I'm just going to leave this development plan here for your perusal. Everything that's not in section 5 is priced at $250,000 to $600,000,
Yes, and they've approved and are getting everything there, except the #2, 3 and 4 areas become #1s , and the park, greenspace and wetlands go away. They still end up getting literally the worst form of sprawl, without any of the advantages of density and affordability, or even the greenspace and wetlands that lessen the environmental impact of said development.
This is the type of maneuvering that exacerbates affordability. Now without an additional 70+ units of $250k-350k housing here, demand will rise for those units elsewhere, resulting in bigger offers, bidding wars and cost escalation overall.
As much as I share your dislike of tract housing developers: People like new things, even if they are uglier and less blended into the community than vintage housing. The demand for new housing will keep prices of existing housing more stable, and that can be a good thing. This country needs a lot of cheaply built housing to take the pressure off existing stock. Boomers aren't dying fast enough to take care of that turnover alone. If housing can't be built for less than $150/sqft. this problem is never going to find a solution.
I live in a house that was built in 1932 as part of a development in the late 20s and early 30s at what was at the time the very edge of development in Portland. It was the very type of housing and neighborhood that Sinclair Lewis set 'Babbitt' in, in an imaginary city that was as accurate a description of Portland at the time as it was of Minneapolis, Des Moines and dozens of mid-sized fast-growing cities of bungalows and tudor revivals in conforming street scenes that he deplored and excoriated in the book. Now, of course, these neighborhoods are 'historic', charming, full of large trees and close-into the city in a way that feels very urban now. Even the ugly postwar neighborhoods of Cape Cod and ranches have evolved into heavily landscaped mature neighborhoods of continuous improvement and additionals over the years. As ugly as they may be today, new development still offers the possibility of evolving into attractive neighborhoods of well cared for homes that develop their own character over time (assuming the HOA doesn't keep everything beige-i-field, at any rate).
