Trouble in river city - Infill

Horrible infill?  Problems with aesthetics, compatibility, scale, height, mass and livability?  Is this happening in your neighborhood with tear-downs and larger-than-life replacements?  

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  If those words were measured in square feet, this photo might be worth 2,236 words (or more if you count the second new home next door).

Fields' house: 1,124 sf;   Renaissance Homes: 3,360 sf.  

(Figures from Portland Maps and city building permit).  

New house is 3x bigger than existing house next door!  

Higher, closer, more massive, blocks light, etc. - sounds like Wizers Block and any number of tear-down re-builds in Lake Oswego.  For point of reference, the proposed Wizer development is 3x bigger in size and mass than the condos across the street, and many more times that of homes in Evergreen.  The photo below is a smaller version of what Wizer's will look like. 

 Infill can destroy the fabric of a community, lower residential property values, and degrade the quality of life for those living in close proximity to the behemoths.  With the new development codes under construction now, we can expect the bigger-is-better thinking from City Hall for all LO commercial areas.  (Lake Grove too?)

Towering new homes trouble Reed neighbors
The BEE   May 7, 2014

by: DAVID F. ASHTON - Gary Richert and Heather Fields stand with cardboard signs, in silent protest in front of a couple of giant houses being built next door to their ranch-style homes in the Reed Neighborhood.

Many long-time residents of the Reed Neighborhood say they’re “fed up” with developers cramming in huge “McMansions” among the ranch-style homes on their streets.

“I no longer have sunlight coming into the south side of my house or yard,” said homeowner Heather Fields at 4817 S.E. 36th Place. “I no longer have a view from my windows. I no longer have a private backyard. I no longer can have a vegetable garden in my side yard.”

Fields said she wasn’t concerned about giving her street address, because everyone in the area knows her house. “When I'm out raking leaves, or walking the dog, neighbors referred to what was built next to me as ‘Brontosaurus’ houses,” Fields said.

“Everyone knows that a nice ranch-style house was on a double lot between me and my neighbor, Gary Richert. And now, there are two gigantic, enormous – ‘gi-normous’ –houses packed on the lot they split in two.”

Neighbor Gary Richert, at 4903 S.E. 36th Place, commented, “I'm glad they weren’t built on the south side of my yard. Otherwise, I would never be able to grow tomatoes again in my side yard.”

These aren’t the last out-of-scale houses coming to the neighborhood, Fields asserted. “The builder of these houses, Renaissance Homes, is ratcheting a marketing campaign by sending personal, hand-written letters to older people who own houses on double lots, offering to buy their houses.”

Richert added, “The developer says they are ‘adding value’ to the neighborhood. With this monstrosity towering over my yard, it certainly isn’t increasing the value of my house.”