The Changing Face of
Prairie Creek and Canyon Creek.
Neighbor’s rights, Is it really a thing? by Maria Harris
I
t’s December, 2002. After 18 months of house hunting, I finally found a house that felt like “home”, the minute I walked into it. It needed some work, but I could live with updating it over time. I remember saying to my husband, “if you can make the outside look as good as the inside, I have found our family’s new home”. That was my introduction to Canyon Creek. I fell in love with the topography, the lot sizes, and the character of the different styles of homes. I was so impressed with the schools, parks and the overall neighborhood feel. I remember describing it to my family out of state as a small town feel 15 minutes from downtown Dallas. I will never forget our first summer at the Canyon Creek neighborhood pool. I met so many people that summer, it reminded me of my first year of college! Fast forward 13 years. After the drop in the new build construction market of 2006 and the financial slide of the housing (mortgage) market of 2007, developers started popping up all over Richardsonespecially Prairie Creek to “redevelop”. Before we knew it, modest custom homes built circa 1960’s were being purchased, scraped to their foundation and new 4,000-5,000 SF enormous homes replaced them. The first few were surprising, but didn’t really cause great concern among the overall neighborhood. However, as more 18
developers showed up and snatched up properties, those few homes turned into more than 50 and have continued to grow in number. As new home after new home has been built, some major issues have surfaced in the neighborhood. As the “knock downs” continued to grow in number so did the room additions and full home renovations. For homeowners who appreciated the original development of the neighborhood, with its architectural diversity, topography, etc. they hired remodeling contractors to grow their space and/ or bring it into the 21st century. When there is a building and/or remodeling “boom” in an area, there are positive and negative issues that are created from this situation. To name some of the positive: property values increase, neighborhoods regenerate with younger families giving life to the schools and parks, properties are well maintained and there is a renewed sense of pride about where you live. The flip side of that shows some very negative attributes: construction debris left strewn about, contractors parking everywhere- disrespecting neighbors’ property, loud music all hours of the day. These negative issues are just a few related to the actual job site. A bigger problem has surfaced. It has been coined “Disrespectful Redevelopment”. This is where builders/ remodelers and their design teams as well as architects design and build a home or remodeled space that takes absolutely no consideration into effect the original design of the neighborhood, the deed restrictions of the neighborhood and original builders, and quality of the use of space of the neighbors’
www.CanyonCreekLifeMedia.com
