Old neighborhood successfully blocks McMansion

[OurTulsa]

For those in historic neighborhoods without the HP des. and no real chance or desire to have the des. but still wanting to prevent some nasty McMansionization the following article may be encouraging.

Now how did they form this covenant and how did they get into the City development review process...

Judge upholds Belcaro Park HOA decision
The Denver Business Journal - May 3, 2006

After a six-day trial, a Denver district judge has upheld Belcaro Park Homeowners Association's decision to reject a proposed new house as incompatible with the rest of the block in the historic neighborhood.

Denver District Court Judge John McMullen issued a decision April 28 upholding the Belcaro Park HOA's action, and affirming the board's right to reject the home design as out of character with the Belcaro Park neighborhood in southeast Denver, according to a news release.

The association's board had cited the proposed home's height and bulk, when compared to other residences on the block.

Belcaro Park surrounds the Phipps Mansion about one-half mile south of the Cherry Creek Shopping Center. It's one of the few Denver neighborhoods requiring new development to be approved by the homeowners association. This was the first time that the association had rejected a proposed development.

In 2004, Clayton Properties LLC sought to demolish an existing 1,600 square-foot, 16-foot-tall house at 701 South Jackson Street and replace it with a 5,100 square-foot, 30-foot-tall house. Many neighbors opposed the proposal on the grounds that the new house would be dramatically out of scale with existing homes and would violate the neighborhood's real property covenants, which require new development to be compatible in height and appearance to other residences on the block.

"We adopted and administer our own covenant review process, and it is an important tool for protecting the park-like character of our neighborhood," Dave Neslin, former president of the Belcaro Park Homeowners Association, said in the news release. "We are hopeful that this will encourage other developers to take our covenants seriously, to ensure that their projects are compatible with other residences on the block, and to work with us to address concerns and resolve issues."

The Belcaro Park Homeowners Association board of directors denied the project in December 2004, and Clayton Properties filed a lawsuit in early 2005 seeking to reverse that denial and recover damages.

Bill Short, the association's attorney with HindmanSanchez PC, successfully argued that residential covenants, like those at issue in this case, are a valid restriction on the ownership, construction and use of real property.

"They can give neighborhoods, which act fairly and thoughtfully, greater control of their future and help to address aesthetic issues that sometimes receive short shrift from local planning authorities," Short said in the news release.