Jerry Ford, Princeton
I enjoyed reading Anne Waldron Neumann’s very insightful article about McMansions in the July 15 Princeton Packet. She expressed the opinion shared by many that there should be a stop to the intrusion of these behemoths into our quaint neighborhoods.
As an architect, I look at the problem a little differently than most commentators. Who can we blame for this mess? Is it the developers, who want to meet the demand for high-end housing in Princeton, only to discover that there is no undeveloped land available? Can we blame the Realtors who have become adept at finding the small, outdated house on desirable land and then put the deal together? Can we blame the unsophisticated buyer who is willing to pay any price to live in the biggest house possible in Princeton?
Another reality contributes to the large size of the McMansions: a developer needs to cut costs in construction to make a profit and the bigger houses bring proportionately bigger profits.
In the ’60s and ’70s when I started my architectural practice in Princeton, there was land available and lots were relatively affordable. The tradition at that time was for an owner to search for property and look around for an architect to design a house. I had to try to convince a client that I could do a better job that any one of the other architects in town like Bob Hillier or Holt and Morgan. We were all kept busy in those days and as a result the town gained quite a few fine custom-built homes. There were developers around then as well but they tended to stick to the large-scale housing developments like Kendall Park to the north.
So what has caused the unfortunate development of McMansions? Princeton is like a pressure cooker, the available land is gone while the demand keeps growing for new and bigger housing. We cannot blame the developers, the Realtors or the buyers. The planners and their lawyers are the villains in this drama. The original zoning ordinances that they wrote in the ’40s or ’50s assumed that the town was expected to build out according to a proscribed density plan and then stay that way “forever”?
The present planners have completely failed to recognize the realities of the demographics that predict that Princeton will continue to grow as long as it continues to be desirable. The only concern the planners express is that Princeton must be preserved. Any possible change is thought to be a threat to the economic security of the individual homeowner. In other words, the planners are afraid to plan ahead for the real future.
I might add that the failure to plan ahead will lead to a form of zoning chaos. More and more we will see the desires of developers and the angry reactions of homeowners solved by legal action. Consider this scenario: “If you don’t let me build my McMansion, I’m going to hire the biggest and best Philadelphia mega law firm to challenge you in court.”
So what’s the answer? Can we really plan for the future? Is Princeton smart enough to throw away all the old planning dictums and come up with a new way of planning for the future? Are we smart enough to realize that we are the center of a region and that our planning should be more in scale with our county and beyond into our region?
We can’t solve the issue of McMansions by tweaking the zoning ordinance. We must look at the economic and demographic forces that are forcing a collision with the old way we plan our communities. I know that Princeton has the smarts to do this. Do they have the courage?
Jerry Ford, AIA, is the founder of Ford 3 Architects. A former member of the boards of the Nassau Club, Princeton Chamber of Commerce and Plan Smart NJ, he now serves on the Princeton Sustainability Commission and is chairman of the board of the French American School of Princeton.
