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I recently drove down to Raleigh to try to find a house to rent for a short 6 month stay in the area for a work assignment. I spent hours and hours driving around Raleigh and Cary.
While the countryside is beautiful with lots of forested areas and many of the established areas have lots of trees around the homes, I saw an incredible amount of Tract Housing all over the area. Cooker cutter subdivisions where rows and rows of homes looked pretty much the same. Zero lot lines. Homes jammed together on 1/8 acre lots with basically no room for any grass or trees. It appeared that the developer bought a 500 acre forest tore down pretty much every tree and put thousands of homes jammed together without any concern for the environment. It was one of the ugliest things I had ever seen.
Yes, Tract Cookie Cutter Subdivisions are found all over the country but the new developments in the Raleigh area were just terrible looking. In my home town of Columbia Maryland there are strict tree save laws that require developers to work around the trees and save 40% of them in the development of new homes.
It is such a shame that Raleigh and the rest of the Triangle communities allows so many of it's forests to be felled by developers to build tract housing! What are your thoughts about the cooker cutter subdivisions and huge tree loss in the Triangle?
IIn my home town of Columbia Maryland there are strict tree save laws that require developers to work around the trees and save 40% of them in the development of new homes.
It is such a shame that Raleigh and the rest of the Triangle communities allows so many of it's forests to be felled by developers to build tract housing! What are your thoughts about the cooker cutter subdivisions and huge tree loss in the Triangle?
I agree with you to a point.
Actually, I think it's awesome your town requires them to save trees. In such a progressive area as Raleigh, you'd think the greenies would want that too.
Personally, I love trees and the way they make neighborhoods look.
If you want to see a depressing site, go visit Dallas. It's literally the same house 1,000 times over in each subdivision. A co-worker used gps to find his house for six months because they all looked alike....
Where this has been super noticeable is in Wake Forest, which had a great opportunity to remain well landscaped as they built out and the $$ to do it (lots of higher income folks there). Yet what did they do? Bulldoze everything and put up tract home after tract home or apartments.
There is a lot I don't like about the NE but the subdivisions are definitely better there.
Since you won't be here long term, shouldn't be an issue. As Mike said build what you want if you do move here, or buy an older (gasp!) house that isn't in a cookie cutter neighborhood and has more room. That's what we did. Not gonna beat my head against the wall about others' choices.
Where was this 500 acre subdivision with 1000s of houses anyway? I want to see it.
I know that municipalities in the Triangle also have regulations that developers are supposed to leave open space and save a certain percentage of the trees too. The problem is they usually will leave all that area in a certain corner of the total land area under development, which meet the municipalities regulations while still having homes jammed together on clear cut land.
This topic has been brought up before many times in this forum and from what I gather most here are like you and wish more trees could be saved amongst the development without cutting everything down. It's up to our elected local leaders to make that happen and unfortunately money talks.
Large-scale developers like Pulte and M/I can build homes at lower cost than the small builders that once proliferated here. My house was built by Jerry Wagoner in 1983. He has done over 500 in the Triangle, but I just checked his website and he has only 3 finished homes on the market. Even the larger local firms like Homes By Dickerson are squeezed.
Land values have risen. Smaller lots mean lower prices to the buyer, all other things being equal. For some buyers, especially those moving here from high-price locations like California and New York, lot size isn't a major concern. Other people prefer the convenience of small lots.
The City of Raleigh strongly encourages dense development, so that the City (whose boundaries are essentially maxed-out) can continue to grow in population. Raleigh does require developers who clear-cut to plant new trees based on a formula. In 25 years, those neighborhoods won't look as bare as they do now.
Large-scale developers like Pulte and M/I can build homes at lower cost than the small builders that once proliferated here. My house was built by Jerry Wagoner in 1983. He has done over 500 in the Triangle, but I just checked his website and he has only 3 finished homes on the market. Even the larger local firms like Homes By Dickerson are squeezed.
Land values have risen. Smaller lots mean lower prices to the buyer, all other things being equal. For some buyers, especially those moving here from high-price locations like California and New York, lot size isn't a major concern. Other people prefer the convenience of small lots.
The City of Raleigh strongly encourages dense development, so that the City (whose boundaries are essentially maxed-out) can continue to grow in population. Raleigh does require developers who clear-cut to plant new trees based on a formula. In 25 years, those neighborhoods won't look as bare as they do now.
They are spread waaaaaaaaay too thin. I'd argue Dickerson has outgrown the "local custom builder" category and their design and PM team needs to grow to catch up.
ANYPLACE that has population growth like the Triangle will end up with tract housing. It's the only way to meet demand.
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