Smaller is better for homes, say builders

McMansion's death spurs call for relaxing county law

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

However, as the real estate market has cooled, energy prices have risen and the average price of homes has fallen in the last year, these cash-hungry beasts have fallen out of favor with the buying public, according to the county’s largest developer.

‘‘We need to sell houses, and we need to get the prices down to sell houses,” said Michael Wilson, chairman and CEO of American Community Properties Trust, developer of Waldorf’s St. Charles planned community.

Wilson made the remark during a lunch meeting with the county commissioners on Tuesday. Prior to the meeting, the commissioners had received a briefing from their planning staff on the minimum house size required by the county’s zoning code.

It has been frequently stated by several of the commissioners, especially during the 2006 election season, that the reason young county natives are being forced to move elsewhere is that the county set the minimum house size at 1,650 square feet in the late 1990s, out of range for first-time buyers.

‘‘There was a plague of falling property values in the early 1990s,” said County Attorney Roger Fink, explaining that the building restrictions were designed to prevent the flood of nearly disposable housing that sprung up in the county in the previous decade.

However, planning staff told the commissioners that there is more fine print to that statute. While the statute does set a minimum house size, up to 10 percent of a housing development can be built smaller than 1,650 square feet. Also, acting as the county’s housing board, the commissioners can override the statute and allow for an entire development of smaller houses.

Planners said they could only find one instance in the last decade where the 10 percent option was exercised, and it was for a single house.

‘‘It looks to me like it is an issue of education,” said Commissioner Reuben B. Collins II (D).

‘‘I certainly touted that number as being in stone,” agreed Commissioner Edith J. Patterson (D), referring to the 1,650-square-foot rule.

Armed with the new knowledge of these exceptions, the commissioners went to lunch at the ACPT offices and pitched the idea of smaller housing opportunities for the county’s workforce.

Their idea had a warm reception.

ACPT officials showed that 77 percent of the housing stock in Fairway Village, the newest section of St. Charles, was built with 2,350 square feet or more. However, the developers confessed that home sales have fallen off sharply since Thanksgiving. ACPT officials joked that when this year’s sales are balanced with sales that have fallen through, they have sold ‘‘minus two” homes.

The commissioners asked ACPT officials if they are seeing the need for less expensive home options.

‘‘We agree with that, and we would certainly like to work with the county on a workforce housing program,” said Edwin Kelly, ACPT’s president and chief operating officer.

The commissioners have asked planning staff to begin educating developers about the house-size exceptions and review the policy to see if it should be changed. Commissioners’ President F. Wayne Cooper (D) said he believes the policy needs reviewing, because the loss of young workers could hurt the county in the long run.

‘‘What I’m hearing is people can’t afford these homes,” Cooper said.

jfriess@somdnews.com