The Mercer Island City Council adopted new restrictions on home sizes Tuesday night. The controls come at the behest of neighbors upset with seen new large homes squeezed onto regular size lots.
Thirty-year resident Chuck Waller, spoke for many.
”You just you lose the continuity of being in a neighborhood,” Waller said.
Carolyn Boatsman helped lead the fight for the new regulations.
MERCER ISLAND, Wash. — Scroll down to continue reading.
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She’s worked two years to get the city to pass restrictions on the size of houses and the destruction of trees.
As she spoke, construction crews hammered on a big new house across the street from her older, smaller home.
“Over the years many smaller houses have been torn down and very large houses have replaced.”
Asked why builders shouldn’t be allowed to serve the market’s demands, she responded, “Well, what citizens want in their own community is also important.”
But the Master Builders Association objects to what Mercer Island is doing.
“They will be the most restrictive regulations in the region,” said governmental affairs specialist David Hoffman.
Hoffman says the new rules will hurt, more than they help.
“Our concern is they will not make much of a difference at all accept for reducing property values and reducing the ability of homeowners to utilize the property that they own.”
The new restrictions passed the council by a 5-1 vote. They go into effect on Nov. 1.
Cox Media Group
