The word “McMansion” has a controversial lineage. The term originated as a pejorative term in the go-go 1980s, when housing was big and trending bigger. ILike many subjective qualities, the distinction can be elusive — something akin to Justice Potter Stewart’s famous maxim about pornography.
“I know it when I see it,” Justice Stewart wrote a concurring opinion to the 1964 case of Jacobellis v. Ohio.
Recent years have seen land-use policy arouse intense passions. Many proposed projects unite neighbors in opposition, with public hearing dockets filled with angry residents pleading with City Council members to preserve the character of their neighborhoods. But using a term like “character” is just as problematic as using a word like “McMansion” — without a commonly accepted definition, arguments about land use can frequently bog down into a war of words over semantics.
Part of the reason for the trend is advances in building technology. Larger rooms are easier to make because of prefabricated trusses, and metal connector plates can now be used to unify wooden struts. Another reason may hinge on economics: By increasing square footage, builders can ask more for a house — increasing the bottom line and making more money.
WHATEVER THE reason, the Alexandria City Council has been feeling the heat. In their last meeting before taking a two-month break, council members decided to implement an “emergency ordinance” to prevent McMansions from being built while they are away from City Hall during the dog days of summer. The language of the measure was intentionally vague — asking builders to consider “character” without providing a definition of what that might be.
One of the findings in the emergency ordinance cuts to the heart of the City Council’s concerns: “An emergency exists by virtue of the fact that established residential neighborhood in the city, which constitute a vital part of the city’s character, are threatened by development of overly large new houses and additions which are out of scale with the neighborhood, disrupt and harm the established neighborhood character, and adversely impact the neighboring properties, and, absent the adoption of this emergency ordinance, this threat will continue unabated during the council’s summer recess.”
But not everyone agrees with the ordinance’s finding — especially the City Council’s willingness to use subjective terminology like “character” without defining it.
“Governments should not take a ‘know it when I see it’ approach to defining the private property rights of its residents,” wrote Margaret Ireland, chairwoman of the
Northern Virginia Association of Realtors, in a letter to City Council members. “Any discussion of character will involve the opinions and judgments of those defining the term.”
Although he voted for the emergency ordinance, Councilman Rob Krupicka agreed that use of the word “character” was problematic.
“One of my biggest problems is that character can be an arbitrary tool that’s defines by who comes down here and yells the loudest,” said Krupicka during a public hearing on the matter last month. “I feel like we’re running the risk of adding more arbitrariness and politics to this.”
Nevertheless, said Vice Mayor Del Pepper, it was important for the City Council to take action so that some measure of protection was in place during the summer months.
“I feel like we have to have something, even if it is short term,” Pepper said. “At least we will have some protection.”
ASIDE FROM THE amorphous finding on “character,” the emergency ordinance also creates a new rule about door heights. Under the new regulations, front-door thresholds can not be built more than 20 percent higher than the average height of other thresholds on a block without a special use permit.
“Because the grade of these houses is usually increased, the height of the door is significantly higher than what’s around it,” said Planning director Eileen Fogarty. “What this says is that if the height of the door is greater than 120 percent, it will trigger a special use permit.”
In Ireland’s letter to City Council members, the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors also took issue with the new door height rule.
“The city readily admits that a cost burden will be placed on homeowners in requiring that they hire a surveyor to establish a front door threshold height,” Ireland wrote. “In addition, it is unclear whether this requirement would result in unequal treatment of identical renovation plans within the same neighborhood. For instance, it is possible that the front threshold height of a house would fall within the 20 percent variance on a block that contains infill homes, while that same front door threshold height would be more than the allowable 20 percent on a block without infill homes.”
Councilman Paul Smedberg was the only member to vote against the emergency ordinance.