Wordless Wednesday – Construction next door

8 Comments

    • J

      Yes, that is our townhome complex with the crane behind it. The view is going to change when the big apartment building is complete. Blah. I agree, it looks menacing, that’s why I took the picture. Somehow looks kind of Star Wars ish.

    • J

      Nance, the turkeys loved that empty plot of land. The first 3 pictures are the ‘before’ destruction of trees and everything, the last 3 are more current. The 4th one is the same spot as the turkey pic, and is a month or so old, when they were deforesting the plot.

    • J

      Martha, this is next door to our townhouse complex. There were 5 parcels of land, about 2.5 acres. When we moved in, there were 5 houses on those parcels, though one of them was vacant. They weren’t nice houses, pretty run down, and probably were what the whole neighborhood was like before they put in apartments and condos in the 70s and 80s. Three of the five houses eventually were torn down, and a developer came and bought the last 2 families out. So they have cut down 160 trees, and they will put in a HUGE 6 story apartment building that reaches to the edges of the property, 284 units, mostly very expensive with a few low/moderate (like maybe 10 total) income thrown in to get exemptions from coding regulations. California desperately needs the housing, and we live right by a BART station, so there is some sense to it. But our little road is a dead end and only 1 lane each way, which cannot and will not be changed. We fought against it, asking for something more reasonable, ideally 2 or 3 story townhomes or even just a smaller apartment building, but we lost our fight and here we are. Ironically, our over priced townhomes will become even more desirable in comparison, so our home values will likely go up. That’s the silver lining, but the whole thing is depressing. Especially the oak trees, which I adore, that they took out. The row of Oak Trees in the 2nd picture are all gone now, but the row in the 3rd picture are our property, and hopefully will survive the construction, which is destroying some of the roots. Two arborists have given contradictory opinions on their chance of survival, but both say if they die it will be several years. Sigh. I love them.

    • J

      Yes, from everything we hear, it will increase our home’s value. I just wish it weren’t going to be so damn big.