Reply to Why do they allow all the tear downs in Bethesda?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]Who is the “they” in your question?  [/b]Bethesda is just a geographic area. There is no Bethesda government. Some neighborhoods do have covenants that prohibit tear downs. [b]But the housing stock is pretty old. Some of these houses need to be torn down.[/b] [/quote]

"They" is MoCo government.

"They" have the power to impose housing regulations.

For the most part, they do not.

Hence:  Teardowns, McMansions, and socioeconomic segregation.

RE old housing stock needing to be torn down, those who live in charming towns and villages in e.g. New England would beg to differ.[/quote]

MoCo would either have to declare the area a historic district, or downzone the parcels to limit FAR, change setbacks, etc (since existing zoning allows mcmansion sized houses).  The latter, IIUC, would require monetary compensation for lost value, and MoCo is just not going to spend money that way (and few other local jurisdictions would).  An historic district would limit lots of things homeowners want to do with their houses, and is unlikely even if a case could be made for the area being historic.

The other way to prevent Mcmansions, paradoxically, would be to UPZONE to allow townhomes, which in a place close to metro would likely pencil out better for developers than Mcmansions do Iand better at countering SES segregation, put more households close to transit, etc) , but AFAICT the very neighbors who don't like the mcmansions, often do not like TH's either.  [/quote]

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