"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury)
03/08/2019 at 18:09 • Filed to: None
6
11|
"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury)
03/08/2019 at 18:09 • Filed to: None | 6
| 11 |
I’m a big fan of the architecture of Richard Neutra. Today I learned that one of his houses in San Francisco, dating from 1936, was illegally razed by a developer that wanted build something larger on the spot. The reaction from the planning commission? In a 5-0 vote they said to put it back. Build the exterior to look exactly like the house torn down, using period materials and methods. Yes!
In my parent’s neighborhood there was a resident that illegally annexed property in a common area. He did all sorts of obfuscation and lying to community and government leaders. He didn’t secure the permits and permissions necessary to do what he did, and he lost - big time. He tried to get approval for his actions, offering to pay for the land, partially because he had already built on it. Nope - no such luck. He’s lost every single fight and has been ordered to pay the legal fees of the HOA and tear down all of his additions and restore the land, and to that I say ‘good’.
I don’t normally like HOAs, but sometimes they serve a function that benefits the community. In the case of my parent’s neighborhood it’s an equestrian community with lots of trails and open space, and it was built and maintained that way for a reason, and why many people choose to live there. It’s not a cheap area either, with a vast majority of the homes valued well over $1M. To see newly rich fucks come in to a community, like this dick in San Francisco and the twit in my folk’s neighborhood, and try to do whatever they want, for themselves and themselves only without regards to the neighborhood, frustrates the hell out of me and I’m glad that there are people willing to stand up to this. Having a few bucks doesn’t mean you can run roughshod over others and get your way, and I hope to see more people standing up like this in the future.
Nick- Professional Car Destroyer
> Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
03/08/2019 at 18:36 |
|
An HOA is great as long as the people in charge aren’t total dicks, and are reasonably level headed.
My grandmother lives in one where the people are dicks, and will fine you for existing without the proper permit.
Spanfeller is a twat
> Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
03/08/2019 at 18:42 |
|
You know, we see many catalogued houses on sale for years or abandoned here because of stupid and emotional laws like the first one you mention.
If a small house is in an area where only big developments can pay the property taxes, then that house is going to have a very big problem.
No, the developer can’t tare down a catalogued house, but the government should subside catalogued property owners in order to keep the structures from decaying. Or give the developer a certain measure of flexibility to truly make something special out of it. Like here.
https://www.archdaily.com/905094/torre-reforma-wins-the-2018-international-highrise-award
Cities and communities are meant to change, not accepting changes and verticalization is worse for everyone.
SPAMBot - Horse Doctor
> Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
03/08/2019 at 18:49 |
|
This is amazing. I love any ruling against a rich f*** developer. And, that is awesome to hear about your parents HOA. The whole “ME ME ME” attitude of the rich needs to be checked. There is way too much of that on the west coast.
smobgirl
> Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
03/08/2019 at 18:51 |
|
My uncle owns a Neutra house and I got a big kick out of that story. Then again, I’ve also personally been blamed when SHPO recommended additional investigation on a property here in Denver and the developer scraped it anyway. I had nothing to do with it being demolished (I’m just a third party consultant!) but I ended up having to send future letters with someone else’s name and signature to ensure a reasonable response.
NotUnlessRoundIsFunny
> Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
03/08/2019 at 18:57 |
|
From a distance this was so satisfying . This seemed to be really egregious, just tearing down the house assuming he could buy forgiveness later. (I’m not saying the planning commission is reasonable, because I don’t know).
In my neighborhood, one problem has been house flippers who make unpermitted, not-to-building-code modifications, and then sell the end product to unsuspecting buyers, many of them moving to the area for the first time. (There’s a housing shortage, so multiple bids are common, as is buying a house as-is.) The new owners are left holding the bag for whatever fixes are needed.
It doesn’t help that their favorite targets are older people who need the money to move into assisted living, where dangling a big check for a below-market price gets a surprising number of people to take the deal.
RacinBob
> Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
03/08/2019 at 19:45 |
|
The only thing that stinks is when somebody who plays dirty like that loses , they sometime shoots up the neighborhood. Remember, some people solve their problems with guns....
OPPOsaurus WRX
> Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
03/08/2019 at 19:51 |
|
As an architect I hope that fucking hurt him. He can go suck a 2x4
gmporschenut also a fan of hondas
> NotUnlessRoundIsFunny
03/08/2019 at 22:39 |
|
a friend of mine grew up doing contracting work for his dad, and when he was looking at houses had so much anxiety at halfassed repairs and refurbishments by folks trying to cash in after watching too much hgtv
sm70- why not Duesenberg?
> Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
03/09/2019 at 00:25 |
|
I heard about this on NPR a few months ago. Very funny story!
|
NotUnlessRoundIsFunny
> gmporschenut also a fan of hondas
03/09/2019 at 02:23 |
|
I can relate. When I was looking for my current house, there were so many messed-up alterations and half-assed additions (no permits and would never pass inspection, so they couldn’t even be included in square footage for the appraisal) in so many houses I looked at (about 120).
My current house had been neglected for many years, but not outright abused, and they mostly hadn’t even attempted to do anything fancy. So at least I didn’t have to undo anything, just repair and update everything.
pip bip - choose Corrour
> Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
03/09/2019 at 05:35 |
|
excellent result