General Suburban Updates and Rumours

[danbrotherston]

That’s really hideous. In addition to the general bad looks of it, though, consider the waste of space: the space between the houses is pretty much entirely wasted. The same houses could be put on significantly less land and with a significant reduction in heating expense by just sliding them all together, in essence making townhouses. Then at the end of the block there would be either a nice park or more houses. Collect all the useless bits of space together and either let everybody use the space, or build more and share the common expenses between more people.

It is undoubtedly hideous. But I think it's a stretch to call the space between the homes useless. While being a hill certainly complicates things for some uses, I think a kid would no problem enjoying a space like that (and without having to be supervised like if they were off property). Hell, I was just back in a rural area for the past while, and it's made me remember just how much I would kill for even 10sqft of private outdoor space (even if it was a hill!). I have no problem sharing space with people on things like our trail system, but I'm a person who's never truly been able to enjoy a place like Victoria park, specifically because I'm sharing it with other people.

Not to mention, shared walls can be a nightmare. I don't know if construction is different on a townhouse vs a townhouse style condo? I'm also curious how maintenance works in that case.

It really is ugly though...

Even if the frontyard is completely filled with cars, I assume these homes have back yards, I don't think the suggestion was to have no personal space at all. And I'm not saying that no side yards are ever useful. But the marginal gains of having this space between the homes is...I would agree, very small. Making the homes bigger, if nothing else, would probably provide far more value. Doubly so because the biggest benefit to detached housing (more window space) is not even realized...again, because they are too close.