How do you want sprawl to happen? Please don't say you don't want it to happen at all because it's inevitable.
There is nothing inevitable about it. This is not a biological or scientific process. It's a policy choice.
There's about 5 million more people expected here in the Greater Golden Horseshoe in the next 20 to 25 years, and they can't all live in condos
We don't have to allow one more person. For the record, I'm not suggesting, even remotely that we suppress all immigration; but I am making the point, the amount of growth we choose to experience is just that, a policy choice.
. As far as the new subdivisions getting built in the Greater Golden Horseshoe today . The homes are built so close together it's disgusting no privacy lol.
Then don't build subdivisions. I'm inclined to agree by the way, insofar as the reason you want an SFH in order to have a fulsome backyard, and a sense of privacy, most modern subdivisions disappoint. That is not, however, a compelling reason to build even more sprawl.
More worse than places like las Vegas, Phoenix and LA booming metro areas as seen on Google Earth. Bottom line is just take a look at how Erin's old standard subdivisions lots. Are spaced out compared to this proposal in the first photo up above. The developers are really getting there money's worth not the buyers.
The land is worth a lot more money now, and you can be sure, in most cases, the developers have spent a lot more purchasing it.
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To come back to an implicit question in your series of statements, is there any way to allow for more SFH construction, of a form that affords back yards, but yet doesn't contribute to sprawl?
The short answer is 'yes' there is; the longer answer, however, would add the caveats that:
a) Such housing will not be cheap, and will likely never be the possession of the middle class/working class family, only the upper middle class/rich need apply.
b) It will have to come largely at the expense of even more sprawly subdivisions of a previous era.
This parcel is ripe for intensification with an SFH format and large yards:
~64ha of land
Current density, appox. 1 home per ha
Density of nearby Don Mills, ~16 homes per ha.
So we could replace 65 homes with just over 1,000, or more likely 900 after factoring for a large new park.
However, given the cost of that assembly, expect to pay about 3M a pop for that new subdivision.
