Bruce S. Lane, an executive vice president at the Meridian Group, a Bethesda commercial real estate firm, gets up. He's wearing an elegant cuffed shirt and trousers. He warns that strict limits would erode everyone's property values, including his.
"I just bought a house in North Shores that was the most expensive house ever sold on the Delaware coast," he says. "I would have paid 40 percent less if Mark Gitenstein's proposal passed. I'm an example of what we are in danger of destroying -- long-term values on property -- if we impose future restrictions. For many, their beach property has appreciated more than any of their other assets . . . You can kiss that goodbye if you impose 5,000 square feet."
This new home, disparagingly dubbed "the Twin Towers," is part of a heated dispute over building sizes in North Shores, Del.
(Photograph by Timothy Bell)
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His words are greeted with cheers and applause.
The board finally calls for a vote on its proposed size limits, which are promptly rejected , 115 to 47. Now new ballots with Gitenstein's proposed stricter limits will be mailed to residents for a vote later this summer.
The fight has dragged on for more than a year. Today's shouting match has lasted four hours. Still nothing is resolved. In the meantime, as one furious resident points out, North Shores property owners can continue to build up to 42 feet high and jam as much square footage onto their land as county zoning and building codes will allow .
"We made a decision today not to do a [expletive] thing," the resident scolds his neighbors. "You just screwed yourselves."
THE CONSTRUCTION OF HUGE HOMES in older, established neighborhoods has provoked controversy all over the Washington region, in communities from Arlington to Bethesda. Sometimes these behemoths are shoehorned onto existing lots that had never been developed. Most often, property owners make room for them by tearing down modest bungalows or ranch houses.
The trend is especially pronounced along the Delaware shore, where oceanfront land is scarce and prices have risen at astronomical rates that outpace even Washington's frenzied real estate market. Prices for oceanfront lots have doubled in the last three years, real estate agents say. Stories about the shore's real estate craze have become near legend. Kathie Lee Gifford put her home in the Henlopen Acres community near Rehoboth Beach on the market in February 2003 and sold it for $2.3 million a few days later. In a blizzard.
Land values have tripled in the Delaware coast beach communities in the past decade. But the growth within the last three years has astonished even seasoned realtors. Take the coveted oceanfront lots in Silver Lake in south Rehoboth Beach, on a street near where former Reagan press secretary Jim Brady and his wife, Sarah, now live.
For years, this property was owned by descendants of the du Pont family, who used to summer in their mansion by the sea with glamorous guests like actress Tallulah Bankhead. Over a decade ago, the family put several oceanfront lots up for sale starting at $695,000, according to local real estate agent Melissa Thoroughgood. In 1998, one of the empty lots -- 75 feet wide by 335 feet deep -- sold for $1.2 million. The same lot sold again for $3.8 million last year. These days, even tiny bungalows just a few blocks from the beach are being snapped up for $800,000 to more than $1 million, Thoroughgood says.
Bruce Lane, who spent almost $5 million for a six-bedroom house in North Shores in November, attributes the shore's real estate boom to "a confluence of so many things. People taking their money out of the stock market and putting it in real estate. Baby boomers looking for second houses. People wanting to be near water. I think 9/11 caused people to think about vacationing close to home instead of going to Europe."
Lane is currently renting his property out for $12,000 a week as he contemplates how he wants to renovate.
Home buyers paying so much for land rarely decide to remodel outdated cottages, many of them flimsy three-season houses with no central air. In Rehoboth Beach, demolition permits have nearly doubled in the past year. With the new construction comes new luxury -- homes with high ceilings, Jacuzzi tubs, custom cabinetry, swimming pools.
David Dutton, a Lewes interior designer, calls these new homes "sand castles."
"There is certainly a trend towards much larger, extended family homes," Dutton says. "Many common requests are for elevators, a bathroom for every bedroom, exercise rooms, media rooms. Pretty much what you would see in the high-end market nationwide."
Communities up and down the shore have tried to impose tear-down and building limits with mixed results. Lewes, for example, has created a historic preservation district that establishes some limitations on architectural styles. South Bethany, Bethany and Fenwick Island have all adopted some restrictions on the size of homes.
