For years, residents of the 5300 block of Edina's Oaklawn Avenue watched nervously as the big-home developments known as "monster houses" rumbled ever closer to their quiet street.

This fall, Godzilla stomped onto their block with a roar.

A developer razed a 1930s Cape Cod-style house and began excavation for a $1.3 million, 5,400-square-foot replacement. It will be almost three times as big as the house that was on the lot before it, and nearly twice as big as any other house on the block. But it's perfectly legal, meeting all of Edina's zoning requirements.

That doesn't matter to people on Oaklawn Avenue. They've been fighting back, crowding a City Council meeting and posting a protest video on YouTube. Most of the houses on the block have signs in their yards. "Monster homes make bad neighbors!" proclaims one. "Supersized houses -- stay out of our neighborhood!" says another.

In a letter to the developer, one resident warned that whoever buys the house will be "ostracized and shunned ... no neighborly waves, no invitation to neighborhood parties."

Oaklawn's rebellion presents a dilemma for the city, pitting the wants of residents who helped make their neighborhood a desirable place to live against the rights of property owners to do what they like with their land within the law.

For the city, big new houses renew housing stock, add to the tax base and help attract new, affluent families.

But policies that alienate longtime residents can have a political cost.

Mayor Jim Hovland said the city is still trying to shape its zoning policies, parts of which were changed last spring.

"We've been working on this, but maybe we haven't gone far enough to find that balance point," he said last week. "We're very concerned about maintaining the character of these neighborhoods."

Pam Starkey is one of the Oaklawn residents who oppose the new house.

"The developers don't care, they're going to build it, get the biggest bang for their bucks and get out of town. They have no emotional investment," she said. "We all love this neighborhood. ... It makes you sick that you're going to look out of your window and see this right there when everyone has done so much to preserve and maintain the homes."

"Street of dreams"

Monster houses have been an issue in southwest Minneapolis, St. Louis Park and some other inner-ring suburbs, but ground zero just may lie a few blocks from Oaklawn on Edina's Halifax Avenue. A decade ago, Halifax was lined with modest homes on big lots that were just a stone's throw from the shops at 50th and France. Developers bought those lots, razing the houses and putting in big new homes. Some Edina residents began calling Halifax "the street of dreams" or "millionaire's row."

There are not many older homes left on Halifax near 50th and France, but among those that remain, it's common for lots to be worth twice as much as the houses on them.

Oaklawn residents watched with trepidation as Halifax was rebuilt. Then houses were razed and replaced on surrounding streets. Yet Oaklawn -- which one resident described as a "Leave It to Beaver" street of mostly 1930s and 1940s New England-style houses with dormers and big oak trees in the yards -- remained untouched.

Until now.

Residents agree with Paul Peloquin, the project manager for Dailey Homes, that the 1937 Cape Cod at 5308 Oaklawn had fallen into disrepair and had been mostly vacant in recent years. Still, the house sold for nearly $630,000 last spring.