A Megamansion Backlash Appears to Be Growing

In East Hampton, New York, big-box stores are capped at 15,000 square feet. Personal homes, though, can go up to 20,000 feet. It's a point made by the planning director of the municipality, where a working group has proposed cutting the biggest-allowable house size in half, to 10,000 feet, reports the Wall Street Journal. And East Hampton isn't alone. The story explores what appears to be a growing backlash against megamansions across the country—"towns from Aspen to Martha's Vineyard are in a big-house brouhaha." Aspen, for example, is located in Pitkin County, Colorado, which cut the biggest allowable new home from 15,000 feet to 9,250 feet in November and is weighing a further cut to 8,750 feet this year.

A working group in Martha's Vineyard is proposing similar cuts. "It's just really shocking to many of us—these huge houses are the size of substantial hotels," says Julia Livingston, the group's leader. The sentiment is echoed by critics elsewhere, but the story also factors in the views of those who say the government shouldn't be telling people how to build their own homes. "It appears to be an idea born out of misplaced envy and resentment," wrote one person in Colorado's Routt County—ski country—in a public comment on plans for a crackdown there. "Why is the County punishing success in life?" wrote another. (Read the full story.)