"We're trying to protect the integrity of the existing neighborhoods," she said. "[Infill is] becoming more and more of a problem as the larger pieces of land become developed. Now there's less land to be developed, so now people are looking at these smaller lots that developers wouldn't have bothered with before."
Brooklyn Park is an area that blossomed in the 1940s as World War II workers settled in. The last census reported that 11,000 people lived in this 3-square-mile patch of land, and many residents have lived there for generations, said historian John Greenstreet.
To this day, it's one of the few places left in Anne Arundel where first-time or low-income homeowners can afford to buy a house, according to the county's "small area plan" for the community. In June, the average sale price of a home in the county was $427,655, according to the Metropolitan Regional information Systems, while in Brooklyn Park, the average is $271,181, according to Steve Graves of Coldwell Banker.
While most houses sit on two combined 25-foot-wide lots, the new ones sit on just one. Houses on the narrower lots are supposed to be 12 feet wide to ensure a certain amount of space - and privacy - between the house and the edge of the property, but property owner Shawn McCarthy applied for and received a variance to build a two-story, 18-foot-wide by 40-foot-long house on Seward Avenue, said his lawyer, Robert Fuoco.
McCarthy isn't out to antagonize the neighborhood, his lawyer said.
"You always want to make a proposal that is accepted by the community," Fuoco said. "You don't want to be a bad neighbor."
The point is that "it's a legal building lot," he said.
Robert Cook, who owns the house next door, moved into the neighborhood four years ago, believing he had bought both pieces of land until February, when McCarthy put up a fence. He says the new house will be "right on top" of his: "I'm going to be staring right into the windows of the other house."
Other neighbors were also shocked to learn that houses could be built on 25-foot lots.
"When my father built his house in the 1950s and '60s, they had to have two building lots," O'Neil said.
Larry Tom, planning and zoning director for Anne Arundel County, could find no information on whether residents were formerly required to buy two lots to build a home. It is legal to build on 25-foot-wide lots today, he said, based on the code last updated in 2005.
