If You Build It, They Will Try To Make Your House a Historic Landmark
I was surprised to find a story on the interesting, but usually left-leaning Boing Boing, about a property battle written in favor of the homeowner.
The 87-year-old mother of the founding editor of Wired magazine was planning to build an addition to her Berkeley home: a first floor bedroom for herself, and an upstairs bedroom for a caretaker. The woman was absolutely frightened to use the stairs to get to her current bedroom, because an accident could stop her from leading her mobile lifestyle.
However, a couple of her neighbors protested her decision to add on to her home, acting as if her expansion was akin to a Wal-Mart invading their idyllic, progressive neighborhood. They even went so far as to petition the local council to designate her home as a landmark when they ran out of legal options.
Though her home was eventually deemed a landmark, the council unanimously voted to let her build the addition anyway. Score one for property rights!
Read the first post about the story here. The second one is here.
