Wide side yards are moats to keep you away from your neighbors. This is widely seen as a feature, not a bug.
Re:Household Size and the Housing Stock
by jeffreygoesto on Saturday April 20, 2024 @04:50AM
(#40095852)
"Not meeting your neighbors" works even better in a high rise, and that is tightly packed. :)
Not really, when you can hear every breath they take through the walls.
For noise reasons and to prevent spread of fire
Re:Household Size and the Housing Stock
by seanmcdirmid on Saturday April 20, 2024 @12:11AM
(#40094744)
That’s basically what you do with town homes. You need to obey minimum setbacks for fire reasons, but otherwise no yards.
Re:Household Size and the Housing Stock
by fire_lake on Saturday April 20, 2024 @06:33AM
(#40096268)
Front gardens are a benefit to everyone in the neighbourhood, maintained at cost to the owner. They are an anti-SUV, in a way.
I could even support tax benefits for maintaining green space in the public view. The alternative (I saw this the UK) is that people turn their front garden into parking or expand their building towards the street.
Grassy front yards are a complete waste of space and water. Kids don't play on them. The person who uses a front yard to grow food is pretty rare.
At the end of the day, too, we have a housing crisis, not a front-yard crisis.
Lots should be narrower. You could get more houses on a block, and they'd could all still have a usable front and back yard. In fact I'd allow them to be built closer to the street, because nobody really uses their front yard either. A nice backyard is something most people would use and enjoy.