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I never really got the appeal of it anyway. The point of living in high density is that you live in high density. You have access to public transportation, a larger number of jobs within close proximity, restaurants, groceries, and other everyday needs within walking distance.
If you just buy up a few blocks of exurban housing and build a bunch of apartments on it, you don't really have any of that. You're just living in an apartment in an exurb with poor at best public transit and nothing within walking range. You're still dependent on the car to get around just as much as the family living five blocks away in a SFH home a half acre of land or whatever. The cost of living is lower, so you see a few apartments in low-density exurban areas, but they tend to be luxury "resort community" type apartments. They work for singles or young couples that prefer living in low-density environs (with all that entails) who don't need the 3-4 bedroom house. It's not like living in a sardine can confers any of the benefits of living in a dense neighborhood, however, which is what most people are after. The sardine can just becomes a practical necessity because land prices are much higher in cities than in far flung suburbs. Even a typical San Francisco-sized lot (2,000-3,000 square feet) can run up over a million dollars depending on location. You live in sardine cans in San Francisco or Manhattan out of necessity to live in those neighborhoods, not because what you really want to do is live in a sardine can 40 miles outside the central city.
If the market demands high density then it will be built. If it's built and there's no demand then the buildings will sit empty. There's a reason why the OP's area doesn't have high density housing, the people who moved there didn't move there for it. They moved there for large lot single family houses.
You guys that want to take single family houses and turn them into garden apartments crack me up.
OP's area does have this. There is a large new development near the Vienna metro station (Metro West) that was built in place of 70 or so single family homes. Pulte bought up the entire neighborhood and bulldozed it.
Where I live housing is very expensive and in short supply but as I drive around and look down at the area from a plane I am shocked at the amount of land that sits empty in woods and fields. But then forty miles out of the city they tear down a forest to build homes. It does not make sense.
What do you think of a developer buying out homeowners who live in a subdivision of large lot homes, tear the homes down, clear cut the site and replace it with apartments and townhouses?
Where I live in Fairfax County it is happening. The developer finds neighborhoods built in the 1950s and 60s when the area was semi rural and economically at that time they could build small homes on huge wooded lots and still make money. The developer realizing that the land is valuable and small homes on big lots are not a practical use of the land so close to major roads and employment center. The developer contacts all the owners in the subdivision and offers to buy their home and land for a good price and if successful will tear the homes down, clear cut the trees and work with the county to rezone the area for high density development. It's a win-win for the property owner, who makes a huge profit on his home, and the developer. If the community comes out ahead, that is yet to be determined.
What is better for the community. 100 homes on 1 acre lots built in the 1950s surrounded by grass and forest, or a 2000 town homes and apartments on the same property, bringing in lots of property taxes, housing in a close in location but now the green space is gone as the developer clearcuts a million trees to cram as many homes into the property as he can.
I do not see the point of clearing out land forty miles away either but the idea of buying out subdivision and tearing them down, replacing with apartments is a bad idea. Those homes are already built, you may as well let it stay there. High density development should be at the core of the city, not further away.
You can go ahead and start your idea. After living in Arlington for a few years (in Clarendon), I am done with living in areas like that. High prices for small, poorly built apartments, no thanks. Drop the prices lower, and then you get the bottom rung of the ladder coming and starting the circle effect of more crime equaling more people not moving, equaling in prices drop even more; there is just no way around it; absurd high prices, or ghetto idiots disrupting your life.
Absolutely terrible idea. "Better for the community?" Who are you to tell people what they want? Why this desire to make people move out of their houses because you think they're "too big"? And what makes you believe that EVERYONE wants to live in apartments and townhouses? I sure as hell don't. Enough of this nonsense, I mean really... I get the idea of densification and infill projects in places where it makes sense, blighted inner city areas, neglected downtowns, older urban/streetcar suburban neighborhoods...but this crap of going into an area of people's homes and buying them all out just for the sake of higher density and because you think it's better...absolutely not.
The OP makes it seem like its common.
I know of one place where it occured in Fairfax County.
MetroWest. No one imposed it on the homeowners - the HOA arranged it on the homeowner side - I believe all the homeowners in the HOA agreed - the price the developer offered was high enough to make that work. It happened to be right across the street from a metro (heavy rail) station. The HOA was already surrounded by 1975-1980 vintage THs and garden apartments (and some newer apartments). The economics made a lot of sense, and its not a situation thats been replicated since, in FFX county, or anywhere else in the DC region -despite a shortage of high density units close to transit (as demonstrated by prices).
I never really got the appeal of it anyway. The point of living in high density is that you live in high density. You have access to public transportation, a larger number of jobs within close proximity, restaurants, groceries, and other everyday needs within walking
Metrowest is walking distance to heavy rail transit (the Orange line Vienna station). While the area is not the classic image of walkable urbanism (aside from MetroWest itself, and two adjacent newish developmets) its not far from lots of amenities, in the center of Vienna, in Fairfax City, and its not THAT far from Tysons Corner.
You can go ahead and start your idea. After living in Arlington for a few years (in Clarendon), I am done with living in areas like that. High prices for small, poorly built apartments, no thanks. Drop the prices lower, and then you get the bottom rung of the ladder coming and starting the circle effect of more crime equaling more people not moving, equaling in prices drop even more; there is just no way around it; absurd high prices, or ghetto idiots disrupting your life.
Knokc the prices in Clarendon down 25% and you would hardly have "ghetto idiots" or "bottom of the ladder" people. For anyone who is not aware how pricey Clarendon actually is right now.
Well walkability is nice, good for the environment. but not that special where you should buy out low density areas and make them more dense. if someone wants density they will move to a area that is already high dense.
What if they get a job where no such areas exist? Thats a serious issue in many suburban areas - and in particular in NoVa, which OP referred to.
That said, most new suburban high density areas in NoVa are being built on former used car lots, multiplexes, warehouses, etc - not on former SFH neighborhoods.
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