They're back, as they promised they would be

coming to summit road

The Hartford Yahoos, having declared last month’s housing bill only a start, are beginning their next move.

With “Ink Barely Dry” on 8002, Housing Committee Holds Hearing on 151 to Promote Starter Homes and Townhomes

Greenwich Free Press sums up the essential elements:

The bill proposes to cap residential lot sizes to about 1/9th of an acre wherever public water and sewer are available or planned, cap setbacks for homes to 10 feet in front and rear and 5 ft on the sides, ban lot coverage maximums for single-family homes and townhouses (no more height limits), require townhomes to be allowed in single-family zones and require towns to allow single-family zoned lots to be subdivided.

The actual bill can be found here. Excerpts describing what will be prohibited are below:

If you don’t think this is coming, think again: it’s already here in our wokest cities, and nothing about the current crop of under-40 voters makes me doubt it won’t spread; after all, these people have morality on their side!

Ah, seattle!

As Seattle cracks down on McMansions, a question lingers: Are huge homes morally wrong?

…. Writer Hamilton Nolan said yes with a 2012 essayin Gawker titled "Huge Houses are Morally Wrong."

"Huge houses are immoral just like gold plated cars are immoral and massive private jets are immoral. Because you don't need them, and the money you waste on them could actually save people's lives," Nolan wrote.

…. Portland has abolished single-family zoning altogether, according to NPR.

Legislators there recently passed a law that requires cities with more than 10,000 people to allow duplexes on lots that were previously designated only for single-family homes. "In the Portland metro area it goes a step further, requiring cities and counties to allow the building of housing such as quadplexes and 'cottage clusters' of homes around a common yard," Laurel Wamsley reported.

This follows a similar action in Minneapolis, where the city council voted in December to allow duplexes and triplexes on single-family lots, a practice that has come to be known as "upzoning."

But … upzoning could add to the number of developers tearing down existing modest homes to make way for multiple rental units, just like teardowns enabled the construction of many McMansions two decades ago.

That's what Seattle seeks to end with its new restrictions on McMansions. The city has imposed limits on how big a new house can be, based on the size of the lot.

"For example, a new house on a 5,000-square-foot lot could have no more than 2,500 square feet of above-ground living space for a single family (not including accessory-unit space)," the Seattle Times reported.

"A new house on a 6,000-square-foot lot could have no more than 3,000 square feet of single-family space, and a house on a 7,000-square-foot lot could have no more than 3,500 square feet."

(The Connecticut Democrats’ new proposed law has no size limitations, but I’m sure they’ll come in time — for single family homes, not the preferred 4-story town houses and apartments.)

“But this will destroy the value of our homes and our traditional neighborhoods!” hat’s exactly the point, yiu morons.