Lake Oswego's Cottages are both best and beset

Teardowns--A magazine's accolades for First Addition come as real estate trends threaten the bungalows.

Lake Osweg'os First Addition neighborhood, known for its cute-as-a-button bungalows, was designated this month as one of the 10 best cottage communities in the country by Cottage Living. The national magazine gushed over the quaint homes, the easy walk to downtown and Oswego Lake, and the "jewel-box gardens winking from behind picket fences."

But the citation comes at a time when pressures such as population growth, scarcity of buildable land and climbing real estate prices are beginning to threaten the quality of life that earned praise from the magazine's editors.

A hot real estate market is transforming the neighborhood of modest ironworker' cottages into an area of minimansions best descibed as "something-esque" as in, "Craftsmen-esque" or "bungalo-esque."

Houses in the range of 1,000 to 1,5000 square feet are selling for upward of $400,000--in line with the median sale price in the rest of the city and in neighboring West Linn--and many are being torn down and replaced by homes twice the size.

"It's good we got the award now, because I don't think we'll have cottages in the next couple of years," said Jim Bolland, former chairman of the First Addition Neighborhood Association. "Instead of McMansions, we'll call them McCottages."

The city doesn't track demolition permits by neighborhood, but a research project last year by the head of the city's planning commission estimated that more than half of First Addition's affordable housing was at risk of being torn down based on building age and land value.

Neighborhood revolt against the pheonomenon has spaked citywide changes in housing density and infill policies. Houses in First Addition can't cover more than 35 percent of a 6,000 square-foot lot, and house height throughout Lake Oswego now is measured from the floor to the peak of the roof. Last year, councilors, spurred by complaints from First Addition residents maddened by construction noise, passed a Sunday ban on any work requiring a permit from the city.

But that still doesn't prevent Trista Nelson, a real estate agen, from selling a leaky 900-square-foot cottage for $400,000 late last year. Although homes in First Addition aren't as expensive as those in Oswego Lake, prices per square foot in First Addition still average between $300 and $320, real estate agents say.

A drive through the neighborhood reveals the trend: Half-finished homes tower over cottages built in the early 1900's. In later years, low-end apartments and a senior community center joined the mix of housing to create a neighborhood where young couples could buy starter homes and politicians mingled with graphic artists.

The city's ambitious plan for its downtown is one reason for the run-up in First Addition real estate, because the neighborhood is within walking distance of Main Street's glitzy new Lakeview Village, said Shari Newman, a real estate agent. According to her, some of the teardowns welcome but said that the now high prices are pushing out young families and upsetting those who have lived for years in First Addition.

Article by Lisa Grace Lednicer, The Oregonian, June 22, 2006