[fable]

I just came across this interesting tidbit in the LA Times:

Fed up with seeing outsize houses popping up in open spaces or overwhelming the scale of established neighborhoods, cities and counties across the United States are declaring war on McMansions. Famously eco-friendly Boulder County, Colo., is considering forcing people in some rural areas to pay extra to build homes bigger than 3,000 square feet. Atlantic Beach, Fla., has restricted home size to half the square footage of lots, and the Los Angeles City Council is due to consider a similar measure.

In Minneapolis, reining in big homes was the top issue Betsy Hodges heard about when door-knocking in her successful campaign for City Council in 2005; last month she and the rest of the council unanimously passed a law restricting home size to half the square footage of each lot...

Of course, it's not just a matter of square footage in a house. Several famous mansions are open to the public as tourist attractions, mostly in the Virginia and North Carolina areas. They were attached to enough property to form county-sized parks--though in at least some cases, that has been sold. In others, it hasn't. And I have to admit that while a mansion-sized house might be justifiable in terms of ceremonial functionality for a university president, a CEO, a head of government, there doesn't appear to me any justification for the ownership of so much pristine forest and park land, which could otherwise be turned over to national authorities for public use and administration. Such sequestering of land is obscene, IMO, especially in states or areas where public land is next to impossible to find.

In any case: how large in square footage is your home? Do you rent, or own? Do you have a private garden, or lot, and how large? What do you think is too large for a house size, or a lot size? And note, stay on topic, please.