- Re:NY TIMES: McMansions Making Towns Rich - Wolfeboro Community Forums

David Booth is a fervent recycler: if you see him around, ask him.

The word might have been WILL—and not MUST—but his meaning was clear to me.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the town will not be asked to adopt the roads at Grandview.

That may be true: being four miles from town, there are no residents there to make that request of the Town!

This new McMansion boathouse substantially blocks the views of three modest lakefront homes.

Are you talking about the brick one and the one in back of it and the green boathouse? They own all but the green boathouse if that is what you are talking about. I don't mean to sound like I am defending them but I am just trying to figure out what you are saying.

CW, I'd bet that an ordinary working person could never get a permit to build something like that.

Money carries a lot of weight in New Hampshire. If you have lots of it you can do almost anything you want.

That boathouse was already there. It was a rebuild. Otherwise, they would have had to dig it in.

The previous structure couldn't have been much to look at.

I can see the new one from the end of my dock, and can't recall what could have been there before. I looked again yesterday, and it blocks the view of two homes east of it, and even (for a total of three homes blocked) the owner's view!

(It probably looked good on paper).

Looking again at the damaged road, it appears that the paving nearest me (that the Town did) is being damaged by the newly constructed McMansions—not so much the newer paving.

Anyone heard of a spec-builder returning a paved private road to its former condition?

(The one that was private—then became the Town's—now is newly renamed "private" again.)

What road are you talking about that was private - then not private - then private again? It sounds foolish.

Even the oldest people around don't know when Forest Road became paved by Wolfeboro at the airport, but it had been Town-maintained up until the death of the former owner. "Private Road" then suddenly appeared just before the Big Curve near the airport's dump. I have photographs showing the Town replacing rusty 50's culverts with new culverts near the old hangers.

A videotape (viewed by relatives of the old owner and several Wolfeboronians besides a few abutters) has the airport's owner stating the airport road was first paved by Wolfeboro around 1949-1950. I recall the paving as being done later than that, but will have to look at some aerial photographs to be sure.

The development's newer roadway is minimally being affected: it's the old Town-paved stretch of pavement that is being broken up by heavy, tracked bulldozers. They travel between the two newest McMansions every other day to push dirt around.

This old Town-maintained roadway got ignored in the rush of development—except for getting a renaming.

Will the old Town-maintained roadway get a repaving?

We know who is responsible for the destruction.

Who will pay for it?



Who will do it?

Here is a link someone sent me to an article in NY Times about mansions on Lake Winnipesaukee.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/greathomesanddestinations/19hampshire.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin

Most of those lovely old cottages they refer to didn't have heat or year round water and weren't accessable much of the year. Technology and other advancements have made it a much nicer place to stay. My grandmother hated being on the lake past September because it was too cold.

There is one word to explain all that and the State Government permitting it: MONEY.

wildman said: "There is one word to explain all that and the State Government permitting it: MONEY."




And the CSPA will make sure that they get their portion of money!! They don't want to do anything except make it harder and harder for the average guy to purchase shorefront land on any Lake or Pond in NH.

Thanks DES, I hope you spend our hard earned money wisely!

wolf03894 wrote:




And the CSPA will make sure that they get their portion of money!! They don't want to do anything except make it harder and harder for the average guy to purchase shorefront land on any Lake or Pond in NH.

Thanks DES, I hope you spend our hard earned money wisely![/quote]


Exactly true. It does makes it harder and harder for the average guy. It does create lots of jobs for those who are involved in getting the permits though. Of course this costs the owner much more money to get the permit.

And DF is right, everyone including myself hates to see the old cottages go but noone wants to live in them.

tis wrote:

QUOTE:
"...It does makes it harder and harder for the average guy..."

The "average guy" doesn't tear down a perfectly good place (with a cellar!) to build a $2 miilion McMansion in its place.

Horn's place was a perfectly good, updated, and winterized place. Now it has been replaced with a seven-bedroom place that nobody will live in, and will greatly increase the assessments of its neighbors when put on the tax rolls.

tis wrote:

QUOTE:
"...And DF is right, everyone including myself hates to see the old cottages go but noone wants to live in them..."

Many "average guys" MUST rent out their cottages to keep up with taxes.

Switzerland has totally changed its green mountainside scenery with wall-to-wall (and layer upon layer) of expensive homes. Is Switzerland richer or poorer for "sub-urbanizing" Paradise?

Nobody calls the Winnipesaukee area the "Switzerland of New England" any longer.