'Teardowns' create controversy in Willow Glen neighborhoods
Last April, Frank and Alice Bracken bulldozed all but one wall of their 1928 French Tudor cottage on Carolyn Street in Willow Glen and started building a three-story, 3,500-square-foot house in its place. One year later the new work is still unfinished. Festooned with scaffolding and flapping tarps, the 30-foot-tall stucco walls loom bizarrely over the quaint Candyland dwellings that line this charmed avenue in one of San Jose's most desirable neighborhoods. The Bracken house is only one example of what many Glen residents regard as an alarming trend--residents tearing down their modest older dwellings and replacing them with 'Monster Houses.'
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News
Mark Rasmussen Home
Franquette Avenue neighbors protest proposed remodel.
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Opinion
Is Bigger Better?
SVCN editor ponders the latest trend towards enlarged houses, cars and serving sizes.
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