Mansionization and Its Discontents: Planners and the Challenge of Regulating Monster Homes

This article reviews and analyzes the types of regulations that are being established throughout the United States in response to “mansionization” construction activity. In order to illuminate choices available to planners to address impacts of this trend, the article focuses on the regulatory interventions that have recently been employed in three communities (one in suburban Chicago and two in Silicon Valley) facing pressure from the replacement of the existing housing stock with significantly larger structures, and presents the scope and inventiveness of the regulations. While it is too soon to judge their effectiveness, I define the range of intervention necessary for a regulatory effort to be considered comprehensive—the establishment of rules for multiple elements of building mass, siting, and design to address and minimize the perceived impacts associated with the growth of “monster” homes in existing neighborhoods.