Instead of another brick bungalow springing up across the street from her Millcreek Township home, Wilson got a three-story behemoth with timber pillars and a pitched roof resembling a flat-topped pyramid.

"If it had been on this corner, and blocked my view of Mount Olympus," she said, "I probably would have gone over and torn it down."

Times are changing in Salt Lake County's east-side neighborhoods, where tiny tract houses are yielding high prices in a land-starved real estate market. Old homes are swallowed up by super-sized McMansions that snug up to property lines and sketch new horizons for neighbors.

County leaders hope to tame these so-called monster homes in unincorporated neighborhoods - much like Salt Lake City and Holladay have done - so they have drafted an ordinance that would bridle the building bonanza and force homeowners to keep their castles compatible with their surroundings. The proposal now goes before community councils for review.

Mayor Peter Corroon said the monster-home problem is pervasive in Millcreek Township, where homes range from a meager 440 square feet to nearly 17,000 square feet. Developers have rights, but so do surrounding property owners.

"It would be nice to say that anybody can build anything they want on their property, but that's not the case," Corroon said. "That's why we have zoning ordinances: to ensure that everybody has the quiet enjoyment of their own home, not just one person in the neighborhood."

Supersize mistake?

The growing pains are no more distinct than in East Millcreek, where Community Council Chairman Jay Griffith said builders are building bigger than ever.

He stops on Lambourne Avenue, where developers have squeezed two multilevel homes so tightly that the neighbors could chitchat without leaving their doorsteps.

He continues to the south, pointing to two sprawling foundations on 2700 East that will rise on property once occupied by a single small home. Then, on Evergreen Avenue, he points to a three-car garage that now empties onto a residential drive used by homes half the size.

Griffith said he's not against development. But he is opposed to today's super-size mentality and how it alters mature neighborhoods.

"We live at a time when bigger is better," he said, "whether it's your car - you need a Hummer - or it's your home. People feel they need these very large homes. That's not the way it used to be."

The U.S. Census Bureau reported last week that homes indeed are getting bigger, especially in Utah. The agency found that one in five U.S. homes had at least four bedrooms in 2005, compared with 17.7 percent five years earlier.

The Beehive State - with its traditionally larger families - boasted the nation's highest population of husky houses, with four of 10 homes offering at least four bedrooms.

Growing popularity

Little by little, homes are getting bigger and bigger along the Salt Lake Valley's east bench, sprouting legally in neighborhoods not yet touched by multistory development.

And many home buyers like them.

Brent Buechert, owner of Buechert Builders, said he could have sold his 8,200-square-foot home on Brookburn Road numerous times for $1.4 million. Got Your Back Realty reported an equally hot market for its 5,000- to 7,000-square-foot houses.

"People want to live in the east-side neighborhoods where they grew up," real estate agent Wes Miles said. "But they want a new house."

So smaller homes give way to bigger ones - a transformation Miles believes will continue in a market where land is limited and prices are high.

The real estate agent doesn't mind monster homes, so long as builders abide by county building standards. He said the larger homes probably lift, rather than lower, neighborhood property values.

Homing in on new rules

The trend certainly is changing Millcreek's housing mix.

Homes that averaged 2,075 square feet in 1991 swelled to more than 2,400 square feet in 2005, according to county data. The number of new homes with more than 3,000 square feet has jumped from 13 to 23 annually over the same period.

Jeff Mansell, a developer and Millcreek homeowner, kept his home small. But he doesn't object to people who choose otherwise.

"It's up to each individual property owner," he said. "They have property rights. As long as the zoning is in place, they should be able to meet the codes and requirements that are in place."

The county now is proposing to stiffen those requirements.

Officials could impose height restrictions that would keep developers from building houses substantially higher than their neighbors. They could limit floor space or link the size of a home to the size of the property.

Whatever the tool, Corroon said the county needs to act.

Meanwhile, Betty Wilson watches as her neighborhood along 2700 East changes. She still smiles, but shakes her head at the pitched-roof skyline nearby and wishes it weren't there.

jstettler@sltrib.com

Salt Lake County mayor