Kiawah Island may limit home sizes

KIAWAH ISLAND--Q: What has nine bedrooms, a foyer, a living room, a billiard room, a breakfast room, a wine room, a dining room, a great room, a mud room, a library, a sitting room, an exercise room, a media room, two offices, a pantry, two wet bars and more than 10 bathrooms? A: The monster mansion under construction on Kiawah Island that's prompting Town Council to consider whether it's time to limit the size of new homes. When a Connecticut man bought two 5,000-square-foot homes on Jackstay Court, tore them down and won approval to replace them with a 16,000-square-foot mansion, not including 5,000 square feet of porch and deck areas, some felt it was out of place in the neighborhood of, relatively, smaller homes. By comparison, the house is seven times larger than the average new U.S. home and three times the size of a basketball court. Since this barrier island was developed three decades ago, the emphasis has been on blending buildings in with nature. Now, some say more could be done to ensure that new homes blend in with one another. Kiawah Mayor William Wert said the town's initial development guidelines were to ensure homes would not be built too small. "No one thought, looking into the future, that someone would want to build a house that's too big," he said. BIGGER HOUSES As beachfront property value has soared, many have looked to build grander homes on the increasingly expensive lots. Most towns, including Kiawah, have limited house size by restricting height, setbacks and lot coverage, but those old tools aren't always effective. New flood rules often require new houses to be built much higher off the ground than older houses nearby, exacerbating the size difference. Also, owners sometimes want to accommodate an extended family, or they're looking for all the amenities, such as large bathrooms and special rooms for televisions, saunas, exercise and wine. On Kiawah, there's a growing trend to buy two or more lots and combine them to build large. In some cases, that's not a problem, such as the 13,000-plus-square-foot mansion built by Robert McNair, the Texas businessman who owns the Houston Texans pro football team. "That's on four lots, and the landscaping is extremely well done," Wert said of McNair's house. "When you drive down the road now, you don't even know the house is there. "There are a lot of large houses on Kiawah, but they're landscaped so well, I call it camouflaged density," he added. The problem with the house on Jackstay Court isn't so much its size but what some feel is a jarring juxtaposition between it and nearby, smaller homes. THE PROPOSAL Instead of considering capping new houses at a certain size, Kiawah Island Town Council is looking at a proposal to divide the island into five districts, based on the size of existing houses, and limiting house size in each. The limits would be anywhere from 4,500 to 10,000 square feet, depending on the district, and owners could add another 500 to 2,000 square feet if they break up their home into separate structures. Also, property owners could seek an exception to the limits. Charleston County Planner Dan Pennick, who has worked with the town, said the idea is to prevent a new home from making a dramatic change in one area. "What kind of hit them on the side of the head were these combined lots," Pennick said. Some lots already come with legal covenants limiting the size of a home, he said, "and in a sense, what they're looking to do is expand that to the rest of the island." Still, the restrictions are unlikely to affect many plans: The average proposed size of houses on Kiawah this year is 4,575 square feet, only slightly above the lowest cap level. Wert said the town must decide whether the problem is significant enough to warrant a new zoning ordinance or whether there might be another way to address size, such as reviewing setbacks or lot coverage ratios or leaving the issue to the island's private Architectural Review Board. "That's what we're working through, what's the best vehicle to protect the neighborhoods but still let the individuals build what they want to build," Wert said. It's unclear whether the Kiawah proposal will pass: A key test appears to be the July 12 public hearing. Town Councilman Leo Fishman said, "I think it's inappropriate for any of us to make up our minds about this thing before we hear what people have to say." A COASTAL TREND Kiawah isn't the only place looking at limiting house size. On July 13, Folly Beach City Council is expected to give final approval to an ordinance limiting new homes to 4,500 square feet. Also, no new home could cover more than 50 percent of the property, so the limit might be even less on smaller lots, Folly Zoning Administrator Tom Hall said. "We think 4,500 square feet is pretty gracious," he said. "I don't believe we've built anything over 5,000 square feet." The town of Edisto Beach capped the size of new homes at 3,800 square feet two years ago, and Isle of Palms has limited the amount of heated square footage in new homes to either 3,200 square feet or 40 percent of the lot size, whichever is greater. Douglas Kerr, Isle of Palms' director of building and planning, said developers seem to be able to live with the new limits. "The biggest criticism of it might come from the public who might say it didn't go far enough," he said. The town of Sullivan's Island is reviewing all its zoning. As part of that, it's looking at factors that would affect how large a house could be built, such as rules governing height, the amount of a lot that might be built on and how far a new house must be set back from the street. "It's not been said yet that a house will only be this size," Sullivan's Island administrator Andy Benke said. "I can't tell you what the upper limits might be. That's kind of a work in progress right now." PUBLIC HEARING The public can comment on the proposed house-size restrictions at 6 p.m. July 12 at Kiawah Island Town Hall. Town Council could take an initial vote on the cap at 3 p.m. Aug. 3 and will hold a second public hearing at 3 p.m. Aug. 24 before making a final decision.

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