Hilltoppers

This is an image of someone's dream house, but to others it may seem like a nightmare.  There it perches overlooking the Housatonic Gorge like some modernist Rhineland castle, commanding the view from above as well as dominating it from below.  An access driveway has been blasted in switchbacks up the rock face. 

It's a big house and it makes a big statement, and there's no getting around the fact that it sets most folks' teeth on edge: a bird's eye view that just flips the bird. 

People resent its visibility, the absence of screening and the way it looms over the landscape.  Others find it out of character with what they are accustomed to seeing on the ridge lines of Litchfield's mountains.  Conservationists are dismayed at the way it fragments the forest and ridgetop, particularly because it abuts a large part of the Housatonic State Forest and the Appalachian Trail.  There are competing values at work here as well, especially the tensions between rural and urban, old aesthetics and new, second home-owner and longtime resident. 

Then again, it is perfectly legal.  To paraphrase W.P. Kinsella's famous line from "Shoeless Joe"; "If you zone it, they will build."  Many people considered slopes like this too steep for residential construction - and if you are an emergency responder trying to reach this house up that driveway, it may be too steep to bring help in time - but unless regulations prohibit it, the only building constraint is money.  This house was built during the late 1990's real estate boom, and a $300,000 driveway suddenly was not considered a serious obstacle for a multimillion dollar house.   Connecticut is a home rule state and towns have significant discretion in what their regulations permit.  You can't blame the fox because the hen house door was left open.

When I was growing up in Dutchess County, New York, where the low, rounded hills were still cleared for agriculture and had not reverted back to forest, folks who built grand houses on the crests were called "Hilltoppers."  Those wide views were attractive to wealthy city dwellers used to vertical living.  The dairy farms of the county either went to equestrian facilities or mansions, and the same thing is happening across Litchfield County today.   

The mountains here are steeper but not inviolate, and Litchfield's rolling hills are rapidly being subdivided and developed.  As we build farther from village centers, higher up the slopes and deeper in the forests, the landscape changes.  Perhaps in a few decades houses like this will seem normal here, like the Eastern Forest without its American Chestnuts.

Comments

[Al Mollitor]

This reinforces my belief that one doesn't necessarily need to be intelligent and/or have class to make a lot of money.

[Martin Langeland]

A good friend refers to such as this as:

Aggressive opulence.

I am always bemused that such houses seem to be occupied by elderly people whose bedrooms are up top while the laundry is down the basement.
--ml

[GreenmanTim]

Using Google Maps for the sat image and then Topozone

http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=41.91383&lon=-73.36912&datum=nad27&layer=DRG

this house appears to be at 1160 ft. It is on one of the western spurs of Sharon Mt. and abutted to the west and north by Housatonic State Forest. That is why it could only be accessed by a driveway that switches up the steep slope from the river (and crosses at least one stream). Because of its configuration, Cornwall and not Sharon would be the closest emergency responders.

[Terry Cowgill]

Tim,

I, too, have noticed this monster on my drives down Rt 7. I think it is technically in the town of Sharon. It would be interesting to find out whether this kind of house could be built in a location such as this now.

My understanding is Sharon either overhauled its zoning regs recently or is in the process of doing so after the Depretis imbroglio.

Do you know what the latitude of the house is? Ridgeline regs might have prevented this.