Trouble Behind, Trouble Ahead
Our Planning & Zoning Commission, having labored hard, has produced a spot-zoning scheme whereby a tiny lot on Orchard Street in Cos Cob can be built to 4,000 square feet while a home on Taconic Road, on over an acre and a half, is restricted to 3,500. Homes in subdivisions have no FAR restrictions, homes around the corner do. Homeowners who wish to add a ten-by-ten sun porch must now hire the services of a surveyor, an architect and a lawyer to obtain permission to build, thereby incurring thousands of dollars in professional fees and months of delay. Now, no doubt jealous of the opprobrium that the P&Z has earned for itself, town Conservation Director Denise Savageau proposes to create her own mischief: a regulation governing the removal of trees from private property. “It’s definitely a growing concern” says Savageau who apparently wouldn’t recognize a pun if it fell on her. It seems that people are chopping down trees on their property (and often replacing them with other trees, but never mind) based on “landscape design considerations” rather than “environmental benefit”. Savageau wants to put an end to that, and wants homeowners to come to her for permission before whacking down potential paper products. Whoo boy. Can you imagine the fun that a panel of Savagea’s like-minded “conservationists” will have with property owners? Project plans will be rejected by the tree board, redesigned and resubmitted and rejected again, all while the hapless homeowner tries to discern what “environmental benefits” are necessary to please the board. I’m all for trees—my house is made from them—but adding yet another regulatory burden to our citizens is exactly the wrong direction to take. Unless, of course, the P&Z is getting tired of defending the FAR and seeks a new instrument of oppression.
Old Greenwich
Paul Pugliese (New England Land Company) has a new listing at 26 Shore Acre Drive that is so nice and so well priced ($1.865) I expect it will have gone to contract by the time this article is printed. The house has five bedrooms including a great master bedroom suite, a screened porch with views of the water and is located on one of my favorite Old Greenwich streets. Walk to town, school, Tod’s Point or even, just down the street, your own association “beach” (well, a small craft launching spot, at any rate). Very, very nice.
Down the street and down the price scale, Joan Crossman’s listing at 9 Grimes Road in Shorelands is also very nice. Smaller, as the price reflects, but could be added onto if necessary. Shorelands is a great neighborhood of small dead end streets which permit kids to swarm safely from yard to yard.
Riverside Junk
Several new or renovated houses have come on the market recently priced at two million dollars and up. That seems like enough money to buy some level of quality but these projects don’t deliver it. One has plastic hollow doors (as well as a bizarre lay out), another lacks saddles on door thresholds, sports tiny, cramped bedrooms and has the feel, even though conventionally built, of being the sort of house that gives pre-fabs a bad name. There is a truism in this business that there is no premium for quality—these houses stretch that to the breaking point and, possibly, beyond.
Teaser
There is a house slated to be completed and placed on the market in January that is absolutely unique: beautifully designed, perfectly sited to maximize its incredible views and built with care and quality. I think it will be priced around six million dollars and it is very much not a house for young strivers who fear that no one will know how important they are if they don’t have a huge, gaudy splash of a house. This one is for down-sizers (if that term can be applied to sixty-five hundred square feet) or someone who knows what he or she has accomplished and has no need to shout that triumph from atop his stone wall. Great views, complete privacy and yet very close to town. Where is it? Watch this space.
You Want Fries With That House?
Among the holiday plagues that surface this time of year are “gift basket” sales (gift baskets, leather purses, jewelry, etc.) conducted by some agents at their client’s open houses. I assume that the proceeds from such sales are donated to the agent’s favorite charity but they are, in my opinion, unprofessional nonetheless. The purpose of an open house is to expose the listed property to other agents, explain its features and answer questions. None of which is accomplished if the listing agent is busy conducting a Tupperware party.
Our Planning & Zoning Commission, having labored hard, has produced a spot-zoning scheme whereby a tiny lot on Orchard Street in Cos Cob can be built to 4,000 square feet while a home on Taconic Road, on over an acre and a half, is restricted to 3,500. Homes in subdivisions have no FAR restrictions, homes around the corner do. Homeowners who wish to add a ten-by-ten sun porch must now hire the services of a surveyor, an architect and a lawyer to obtain permission to build, thereby incurring thousands of dollars in professional fees and months of delay. Now, no doubt jealous of the opprobrium that the P&Z has earned for itself, town Conservation Director Denise Savageau proposes to create her own mischief: a regulation governing the removal of trees from private property. “It’s definitely a growing concern” says Savageau who apparently wouldn’t recognize a pun if it fell on her. It seems that people are chopping down trees on their property (and often replacing them with other trees, but never mind) based on “landscape design considerations” rather than “environmental benefit”. Savageau wants to put an end to that, and wants homeowners to come to her for permission before whacking down potential paper products. Whoo boy. Can you imagine the fun that a panel of Savagea’s like-minded “conservationists” will have with property owners? Project plans will be rejected by the tree board, redesigned and resubmitted and rejected again, all while the hapless homeowner tries to discern what “environmental benefits” are necessary to please the board. I’m all for trees—my house is made from them—but adding yet another regulatory burden to our citizens is exactly the wrong direction to take. Unless, of course, the P&Z is getting tired of defending the FAR and seeks a new instrument of oppression.
Old Greenwich
Paul Pugliese (New England Land Company) has a new listing at 26 Shore Acre Drive that is so nice and so well priced ($1.865) I expect it will have gone to contract by the time this article is printed. The house has five bedrooms including a great master bedroom suite, a screened porch with views of the water and is located on one of my favorite Old Greenwich streets. Walk to town, school, Tod’s Point or even, just down the street, your own association “beach” (well, a small craft launching spot, at any rate). Very, very nice.
Down the street and down the price scale, Joan Crossman’s listing at 9 Grimes Road in Shorelands is also very nice. Smaller, as the price reflects, but could be added onto if necessary. Shorelands is a great neighborhood of small dead end streets which permit kids to swarm safely from yard to yard.
Riverside Junk
Several new or renovated houses have come on the market recently priced at two million dollars and up. That seems like enough money to buy some level of quality but these projects don’t deliver it. One has plastic hollow doors (as well as a bizarre lay out), another lacks saddles on door thresholds, sports tiny, cramped bedrooms and has the feel, even though conventionally built, of being the sort of house that gives pre-fabs a bad name. There is a truism in this business that there is no premium for quality—these houses stretch that to the breaking point and, possibly, beyond.
Teaser
There is a house slated to be completed and placed on the market in January that is absolutely unique: beautifully designed, perfectly sited to maximize its incredible views and built with care and quality. I think it will be priced around six million dollars and it is very much not a house for young strivers who fear that no one will know how important they are if they don’t have a huge, gaudy splash of a house. This one is for down-sizers (if that term can be applied to sixty-five hundred square feet) or someone who knows what he or she has accomplished and has no need to shout that triumph from atop his stone wall. Great views, complete privacy and yet very close to town. Where is it? Watch this space.
You Want Fries With That House?
Among the holiday plagues that surface this time of year are “gift basket” sales (gift baskets, leather purses, jewelry, etc.) conducted by some agents at their client’s open houses. I assume that the proceeds from such sales are donated to the agent’s favorite charity but they are, in my opinion, unprofessional nonetheless. The purpose of an open house is to expose the listed property to other agents, explain its features and answer questions. None of which is accomplished if the listing agent is busy conducting a Tupperware party.
posted by Chris Fountain at 10:00 AM
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