Jan
29
‘Old money’ vs. new mansions
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By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
JUPITER ISLAND – Some towns ban broken-down trucks, backyard chicken pens or shabby couches on the front porch.
On Jupiter Island, the battle against tackiness is a bit different. The town’s main eyesore? To many residents, it’s the grand mansions.
Some residents support a size limit on homes, saying they don’t intend to legislate taste – they simply want to stop construction of “in-your-face starter castles” built by speculators and the flashy nouveau riche. Behemoth buildings with imposing entrance gates and opulent foyers are fine in Boca Raton or Palm Beach, but not among the understated homes of Jupiter Island, some residents say. Traditionally, media-shy moguls and famous families like the Roosevelts, Mellons, Doubledays and Bushes have lived and vacationed in smaller homes, obscured from the road by curtains of flowering vines and sprawling banyan trees.
But during the past decade, more and more bricks and mortar have been stacking up behind the leaves.
The town hired consultant Richard Orman last year to study the island’s buildings and draft an ordinance to preserve the character of the island. He has proposed that the town limit the size of its homes, encourage rambling, single-story buildings and prohibit entry gates north of the S curve on South Beach Road.
“I think the security of this entire community is such that you don’t need a moat, fence and a wall around every individual home,” he said at a hearing on Thursday.
Unless the community acts now, a booming real estate market will bring larger and larger homes to the island, Orman said.
Martin County property appraiser records show that, during the past five years, 10 homes with a median of 3,033 total square feet have been demolished to make room for new homes with a median of 10,514 square feet. A total of 27 new homes have been built in that time with a median of 5,255 square feet.
One worrisome example of the bulky building trend is a new two-story, 10,609-square-foot home at 115 South Beach Road, said longtime island resident Andy Resmen. The ad for the oceanfront mansion touts six bedrooms, including two master suites; seven full baths; a two-bedroom staff apartment; a 500-bottle, independently cooled wine room; and a private theater with a 100-inch screen. The price is about $11 million.
ENOUGH ROOM TO LIVE?
The town commission seemed to agree last year that the bulkiest new mansions must somehow be banned. But some residents are now worried that Orman’s proposal, which would not allow residents to add onto homes that exceed the limit for square footage, would cramp their families or limit the diversity of homes on the island.
“I don’t know why anyone would want to know the height of my ceiling inside my house,” resident Tucker Johnson said, “and I find it intrusive that they would want to. I find that scary.”
Johnson expressed concern at an earlier January meeting that an ordinance stingy with square footage could be particularly restrictive for the island’s young families.
As a result of those concerns, Orman revised his proposal to include higher size caps, up to 8,700 square feet for most two-story oceanfront homes and 10,200 square feet for most two-story homes on 2-acre riverfront estates. He also added a provision that residents may build as many one-story accessory buildings – pool houses, staff quarters, orchid sheds, guest homes, etc. – as they want.
But one resident, who asked not to be identified because she did not want to offend her neighbors, said she is skeptical of some families’ insistence that they need more space.
“You can build a house for several children that doesn’t look like Buckingham Palace,” she said.
But one real estate agent, who deals on the island and asked not to be identified, said many buyers consider features like a butler’s pantry, home theater, grand foyer entrance and spacious staff quarters essential in any expensive home.
“People aren’t moving to Jupiter Island to live in the maid’s quarters,” he said. “They want value for their money. I don’t know anybody who would say, ‘These tiny rooms, these little bathrooms, are just terrific. I’ll pay $5 million for that.’ ”
THE NEW AND THE OLD
Behind the proposed size caps, the real agent said, is an “old money” elite raising a disapproving eyebrow at the nouveau riche.
“They want to keep the new money off the island,” he said. “They think that it will keep those people – that element – out.” Though some island residents are “wonderful,” he said, others seem determined to keep the island “exclusive to them and their type.”
Many residents stressed that their concerns are not personal – it is the architecture of the new homes, not the new inhabitants, that is out of place.
Peggy Cole, a former town commissioner and vice mayor, said her sentiment is motivated by a love of the island as it is, not prejudice against those who can afford to build large mansions. Wealthy people have always lived on the island, she said, but in the past tended to build more modest homes.
Now, she said, the character of the island’s homes is fast evolving from “understated elegance” to “overstated opulence.”
But it can be difficult for some residents to disentangle the quality of a neighbor from the quality of his or her home, and by extension, the island’s character and traditions. “It’s the people who have not had money before who are building these huge houses,” said the resident who asked not to be identified. “They want to show off that they have made a lot of money. Elegance is not in their vocabulary. They don’t know what that means.
“The speculators think that people will buy these huge houses and become part of the community. But they are coming in with the wrong foot forward. They would have to be extraordinary people to become an integral part of the community, just because of what they have done.”
IS DIVERSITY NEEDED?
But others have questioned whether a certain style of home is preferable, saying that the island’s character and tradition are defined by diversity of thought and taste.
Nat Reed, son of the founders of the Jupiter Island Club, said at last week’s hearing that a worthwhile cause seemed to have deteriorated into an ordinance that seemed to stress conformity. His parents, Joseph and Permelia Reed, bought much of the island in the 1930s.
“Contrary to what people may think about my mother and father, the Hobe Sound Land Company always sold plots of land in a variety of sizes. . . . That brought an eclectic group of people to Jupiter Island . . . which has long been one of the glories of Jupiter Island. . . . God help us if the dragoons among you decide that we all must now look alike,” he said.
He added: “This whole process has been very divisive, though it was not intended to be. But we are dealing with people’s personal property and therefore strike at the heart of what makes this island unique.”
Jane Doggett expressed similar reservations at the hearing. Within 1,000 feet of her property, she said, are a magnificent brick home, driftwood treehouse lodge, Tudor-style mansion, Spanish mission-style home, shingle-plated Massachusetts beach house and a California desert lodge.
“Hooray, I say, for diversity,” she said, taking her seat amid applause from some of the 100 residents at the meeting.
After several revisions to the proposed ordinance and a three-hour hearing last week, the town is still far from consensus.
Commissioner William Brown, who has worked extensively with Orman and committees of residents to draft an ordinance, urged residents at the meeting to stay focused on the original goal: limiting the bulk of homes.
If the town wants to prevent construction of “the in-your-face starter castles we all know and hate,” Brown said, residents will have to sacrifice some individual freedom. “You can’t have it both ways.”
SPECIAL TOWN, COMMON TREND
Jupiter Island is not alone among affluent communities in its trend toward larger homes. Grander mansions are being built in Nantucket, Mass.; Tuxedo, N.Y.; Palm Beach, and Aspen, Colo., as the strong economy of the past decade has driven a real-estate gold rush. As property values go up, people build larger homes to justify their investment. And in turn, as people build larger homes, the property values rise. Town building official Doug Harvey said many of the island’s full-time residents consider their homes a primary investment and naturally want “the most bang for the buck.”
“If you’re going to pay $4 (million) or $5 million just for the property,” Harvey said, “you’re not going to want to build a $ 25,000 home.”
Former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino pays more than $ 60,000 in taxes each year for a vacant lot valued by the Martin County property appraiser last year at $3.2 million.
Worth magazine has crowned the town “America’s wealthiest” for the past two years, based on its real estate prices. The average home on the island was valued last year at $1.9 million.
The upward spiral in home size and tax bills, fueled in part by speculators according to some residents, has left a few old-timers barely able to pay their taxes.
“The property values have just gone through the roof,” Cole said.
Two years ago, some residents of Delray Beach pressed for a similar ordinance, saying the newer beachfront homes were beginning to erode the community’s small-town feel. But other residents strongly opposed a bulk and height limitation, saying it would prevent them from selling their property at high prices to mansion builders and constrict the town’s potential tax base.
The town commission rejected the zoning changes unanimously, though other towns have been successful.
In 1995, the town of Gulf Stream in Palm Beach County, which like Jupiter Island has about 1,000 affluent residents, reacted to the large, contemporary-style homes being built in the community with a zoning “design manual.”
“We were having a lot of tear-downs, with the result being much bigger houses,” said Town Manager Kristin Garrison.
The resulting manual functions like a cookbook, guiding developers toward homes that conform to the traditional architectural styles of the community, Garrison said.
Gulf Stream’s manual, which addresses architectural details such as style of entrance, roof tile and pitch, and window size and design, is much more comprehensive than Jupiter Island’s proposal. The preference on awnings: operable shutters in classic colors that contrast with the house’s exterior paint. Vinyl and aluminum are discouraged, and florescent, deep and bright shades are prohibited.
The town has encountered initial resistance from some first-time developers, Garrison said. To ensure residents can live within the guidelines, Garrison reviews them with many prospective home buyers. But the majority, she said, have supported the restrictions as a way to preserve the town’s atmosphere.
Jupiter Island’s Brown hopes his community can similarly agree on a way to keep the island as beautiful as it is now.
If the residents cannot reach consensus, he said at the conclusion of last week’s hearing, they may soon be faced with what many consider an ominous prospect:
“Without something like this (ordinance), I predict within 10 years, we’ll have Palm Beach right along South Beach Road.”
Copyright 2001 Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
January 29, 2001 Monday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION, Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 2164 words