The Wall Street Journal is catching up with the movement in the Hamptons and elsewhere to contain the maximum size of homes. This week’s article focuses on the aesthetic and probably sociological objections to the mansions (the biggest ones aren’t really “McMansions” because they are built to a scale that is not…er, scalable). In response, others quoted by the Journal speak to the property rights and general freedom of people to live as they wish. This of course is a valid claim in the USA, but what the story doesn’t get into are the externalities of these homes, which can make them other people’s business. On the East End of Long Island, the underground water table and the power infrastructure are such factors, but the most acute is traffic. The multitude of trade and other service workers that huge residences require, during and after construction, causes 14-hour backups on roads and residential bypass traffic that affects nearly everyone. “Philistines at the Hedgerow” is an old Hamptons tale, but the manifestations of enormous wealth in otherwise restrained settings is becoming a national conversation.
https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/luxury-homes/towns-rebelling-against-megamansions-7f35c9f7
Tim W. Ferguson 