Email: Mega-houses ruin old Lake City ‘hoods

A Berry Picker emails HucksOnline:

It seems like every time I stroll through my downtown neighborhood, I come across another “scrap-down,” where an older home has been torn down. A short time later, the foundation has been poured for condos or a monster house that consumes most of the 5,000-square foot lot.

Coeur d’Alene is way, way overdue for a discussion of in-fill housing guidelines in the Fort Grounds, Sanders Beach and East Sherman neighborhoods. I support both redevelopment in the city’s older neighborhoods and denser housing as smart-growth tools. But there should be guidelines to help these new structures blend into the existing neighborhoods.  City policy should strive to preserve mature trees, provide setbacks that match other homes on the block and keep garages behind the houses.

There’s a reason that downtown neighborhoods look different than the city’s new subdivisions. Let’s preserve that distinction.

Question: Should there be regulations that prevent outrageous examples of “scrapers” that you see in the Fort Grounds area, Sanders Beach area and other older parts of Coeur d’Alene?