Are garages really for cars any more? Is it more likely that the SUV is parked on the driveway, and the sedan in front of the house, while the garage is filled with recreational equipment, or a workshop, home gym, tiny battery-powered cars for the kids, and bicycles hanging down like spiders from ceilings?

According to a recent article in the Sacramento Bee by Portland writer Richard Lovett, last July Portland became the first major U.S. city to declare war on oversized garages, and the first to officially ban what is dubbed as "snout-houses," or garage-forward designs in newly-built homes. Homes designed with garages closest to the street, in the city's eyes, dominate the facades and neighborhoods of suburban landscapes, and are to be avoided at all costs, according to the article.

Besides the Portland City Council's belief that the garage-forward design is ugly, the commissioners there evidently unanimously concluded that these homes seem to "look down their noses at passersby, foster a mindset that turns inward, away from the street, at the expense of community spirit." It goes on to say that the designs are also emblems of an automobile-dominated lifestyle and a "slap in the face to a city that actively encourages walking and bicycling."

The garage-forward design has indeed dominated suburban landscapes for some time, oftentimes making us "hunt" for the front door of newer homes. To take best advantage of square footage, many builders began hiding the entry of new homes, using walkways leading from the garage pavement to a side-entry door. Even if the entry door is in the front of the house, it rarely has its own separate access. To prove my point, take a look at most tract-home neighborhoods. How many walkways to the front door lead directly from the street?

Recessing garages have become the goal of many a builder who realizes the garage-forward design to be less attractive, but builders who are forced into this design by local authorities sometimes find they must charge higher prices for the homes because of the requirements. The method used in the Portland model as a guideline to builders is not necessarily a succinctly worded description. The ordinance merely calls for no more than 50% of the home's front to be occupied by the garage, for the front door to face the street and prohibits the garage from projecting beyond the front of the house, including the construction of a screened-in front porch area. It goes on to require that at least 15 per cent of the house's façade be composed of windows or doors (garages doors, of course, don't count, according to the article.)

Portland homes designers evidently understand the spirit behind the ordinance, but may not be comfortable with being forced to comply with each new tier of rules that restrict design options, forcing builders and architects to learn the new requirements. Many opposed to the new directive believe the garage-forward design offers more security to the homeowner, with the living and bedroom areas farther from the street, offering more noise abatement as well, an understandable stance.

The new neighbor-friendly designs used as goals for both new urban and suburban living are drawn no doubt from the pedestrian-close designs of older neighborhoods throughout the country. In the days when cars were merely mean a means of transportation (usually one per family) and perhaps even farther back to horse-and-buggy times, the evening "walk", still popular in many parts of Europe, was commonplace. Encouraging this type of repartee among residents is a noble objective, with the re-emergence of front porches, port-cocheres, and entry porticoes and patios. In many newer neighborhoods where backyard space is at a premium, this can extend the outdoors in both directions, so to speak. Urban residential land planners have recently introduced designs with alley way access to rear-loading garages, reserving neighborhood open space and meandering walkways for home fronts (see "Residential Land Planners Want New Homebuyers to 'Have It All").

Many of us sat up and took notice of the village-like master-planned Florida neighborhood used in the movie, "The Truman Show." With pedestrians everywhere, people on bicycles (on circuits, no less) it appeared almost surreal to us. Using this as an ideal is perhaps a bit frivolous but worthy nonetheless. City and suburban planners like those in Portland taking an active interest in how new home neighborhoods are planned, however, can only benefit consumers, the industry and life in these United States in this writer's opinion.

Published: May 26, 2000

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A veteran of the real estate and homebuilding industries since 1986, Dena Kouremetis first joined Realty Times as a new homes writer in 1998. Since then, she has authored four books, written consumer columns on new homes issues for websites and newspapers all across the country, contributed to builder trade magazines, appeared as a guest expert on several radio shows and even created a ten-chapter podcast for LendingTree.com’s homebuilder website, iNest.com, now available on iTunes, entitled Uncharted Waters; Navigating the Purchase of a New Production Home. Kouremetis recently joined her local Folsom, CA Coldwell Banker office as a broker associate while continuing to write for the real estate industry. For the past three years, she has been training real estate agents for both the resale and new homes industries, putting her experience, research expertise and gift of expression to work to help others entering the business.