doodledee

The neighborhood right behind our house is this fancy area called the Country Club neighborhood. Here's an old Strib article that provides some background information.

It's an old neighborhood that's full of cool old houses rich with history and purpose and central air conditioning. At some point, somebody thought the neighborhood was important enough from a historical perspective that the whole area was registered on the National Register of Historic Places. This basically means that there are a bunch of rules and regulations about what you can and can't do to your house so that the integrity of the neighborhood will be preserved for eternity. You can't, for example, knock down your house and put up a dome home or an indoor European style go-kart track. Which is a damn shame, because go-karts are a lot of fun.

Anyway, there's supposed to be some committee or something that makes sure the stuff you do to your house is 'legal', but I don't think they're doing their job. I say this because in the last 4-5 months, there has been some serious demolition going on. Like an entire house being knocked down to make way for a bigger one, for example, something that shouldn't be allowed from what I understand.

So I asked around and here's the whole story: the owner of the house wanted to build a new house on lot he owned. He applied for the permits and stuff and was denied - presumably because of the historic district designation. Well the guy is gonna be gone for the whole summer or something so he decides that he'll just leave every window in the house open. The rain pours in, the carpet and walls gets soaked, and the house sits and gets all dirty and moldy and gross. After a while, the dude goes back and re-applies for the permits, this time arguing that the house *has* to be demolished because the mold has taken over and is impossible to clean.

Long story short: the dude now has a new house almost completed where his old, moldy one once stood. It appears he got what he wanted.

It also appears that it may have started a trend.

A month or so later, another homeowner in the neighborhood [apparently] wanted to do some serious knock down type renovation and was also [apparently] denied. Soon after, half of the roof was stripped of its clay tile shingles and left open to the elements for weeks and weeks. The rumors in the neighborhood are that the homeowner was just waiting for the roof to become moldy and damaged so that he/she could take advantage of the same loophole that the other dude exploited. What a lemming.

I've been a member of the National Trust for a number of years now. (Mostly for the 'Preservation' magazine you get by being a member, but also for the kick-ass lapel pins.) Maybe it's time to call in a few favors? Ok, no, probably not, but I am going to write a couple of letters and find out what really happened.

Updates as I get them.