SALT LAKE CITY - A home on Salt Lake City's east side has been demolished to make way for a newer, bigger home, but some of the nearby residents are worried it won't fit in with the neighborhood.
The small home on the lot at 1530 East Bryan Avenue in a Sugar House neighborhood was torn down yesterday to make way for a new house, but residents are expressing their concerns.
"I understand that their house doesn't fit their family. What I mind is that they're building a quote, 'monster home' that doesn't fit our street," said Tana Gaia, who lives in the neighborhood. "We had to go down to the city to see what they were building."
The planned house is two stories and around 4,000 square feet. The home's builder Jim Burdette says it's for a four-person family.
"It has a garage in the front. There's nothing like that on our small tree-lined street," Gaia said.
Burdette says he and his clients have heard the concerns, but say replacing the old house with one that is roughly twice the size falls within the city's zoning guidelines.
"We've been through that process and they've approved us and we're ready to go," he said.
Gaia says that the homeowners took some of their concerns into their plans and made some changes, but she worries that it's still a large house for the neighborhood.
Burdette says that by the time the landscaping comes in, the home will fit in fine.
Public outcry over two so-called monster homes constructed in the Yalecrest area back in 2000 led to a zoning ordinance that prevented construction of more out-of-scale homes in that area.
