Burbank, California, Is Worried It Might Have a 'Mansionization' Problem

Stephanie Garlock

Sep 17, 2013

In older suburbs, should there be a limit on how big single-family homes can be?

There are plenty of reasons to disdain the McMansion, ranging from environmental to economic to social. But underneath it all, the central critique of these oversized suburban-style homes is that so many of them are just plain ugly.

For a few years after the housing market crash, it seemed America's "mansionization" trend might be over. But in 2012, the new houses being built in the United States were bigger than ever, prompting fresh rounds of hand-wringing from preservationists and anti-McMansion aesthetes. For the first time since the bubble burst, cities and older suburbs in many parts of the country are renewing the process of grappling with a tough question: how big is too big?

A new survey of residents in Burbank, California, is trying to quantify some of this local frustration. Using images of seemingly out-of-place new houses within the city's older neighborhoods, the online poll tries to get at both the "gut reactions" that city residents have to these "mansionized" houses and their overall willingness to create new laws to control the growth of house size.

Burbank last limited the size of new home construction in 2005, when it reduced the ratio of house square footage to total lot size, from 0.6 to 0.4. But even these new regulations allow for homes far larger than the average size across the city, according to Carol Barrett, the city's assistant director for planning and transportation. She says the poll is designed to gauge the community's interest in creating further size restrictions, as well as new guidelines for architectural style and building materials.

"It’s not just an issue that the houses are bigger," Barrett says. Another important question, she explains, would be: "Is it just a giant box with some precast concrete stuck on for a little decorative design, or does it have a specific architectural character?"

All of this could be seen as largely a matter of taste. But the awkward images in the survey, of giant, Spanish-style mini-mansions dwarfing the decades-old bungalows and ranch houses next door are awfully convincing. Below are some of the most telling images from the survey, which Barrett culled from suggestions from local citizen groups like Preserve Burbank and coworkers in city hall.