Why are homes built on main roads? (Houston, Dallas: how much, houses)

[lepoisson]

Does anyone know why so many homes in DFW are built on main roads with 4 lanes or more? Usually it's the side or rear of the home facing the road and there is a wooden fence along the street. It seems like a safety issue to me. What happens if there is a drunk driver going 50mph who runs off the side of the road and hits the fence and ends up inside the house? I see big holes in fences all the time, so I'm assuming it's a vehicle that caused it.

This is what I'm talking about here: https://goo.gl/maps/GG7WkCjja4Woqais8

In many cases, the residential street runs parallel to the main road, so you end up with an entire row of houses backing up against the main road.

In other places I've lived, you go down a side road off the main road to access the subdivision. Only the first two houses on the street will be anywhere near the main road because the side road runs perpendicular to the main road.

This example is in Charlotte: https://goo.gl/maps/9szCB1TehHXoPxVR6

[ChristieP]

Because the land is available. No builder wants to waste land by leaving a “buffer zone” between the houses and the road.

[lepoisson]

Most of the ones I see are older ones, so perhaps the road wasn't a main road when the house was built.

[Rakin]

Because lots are valuable and because people will buy the houses.

[done working]

Originally Posted by lepoisson

Does anyone know why so many homes in DFW are built on main roads with 4 lanes or more? Usually it's the side or rear of the home facing the road and there is a wooden fence along the street. It seems like a safety issue to me. What happens if there is a drunk driver going 50mph who runs off the side of the road and hits the fence and ends up inside the house? I see big holes in fences all the time, so I'm assuming it's a vehicle that caused it.

This is what I'm talking about here: https://goo.gl/maps/GG7WkCjja4Woqais8

In many cases, the residential street runs parallel to the main road, so you end up with an entire row of houses backing up against the main road.

In other places I've lived, you go down a side road off the main road to access the subdivision. Only the first two houses on the street will be anywhere near the main road because the side road runs perpendicular to the main road.

This example is in Charlotte: https://goo.gl/maps/9szCB1TehHXoPxVR6

Really?

[Leonard123]

This is exactly what I've been noticing more recently and wondering the same thing. My question isn't so much why the builders do it, which ChristieP answers correctly, in part, above, as much as why the cities allow it and design their road networks this way. Some cities with more land available put housing developments right along the busiest roads and highways. However, there is some truth to what Rakin said as well because people seem to pay a bigger premium for houses that are right next to the busiest of roads and highways. I see housing developments all along the big rollercoasters.

People keep talking about how much land is available in the metro area and how it can keep growing, but I think the bevy of housing up against busy roads proves that this is not the case. This lack of land is also one of the many factors pushing home prices higher. Yet, it's happening in ares where there is land too, and that's what puzzles me. I've seen mostly really cheap, low end developments in the more quiet spots. Regardless, I think cities need to rework their zoning and development regulations. Even cities with supposedly strict zoning are doing an abysmal job.

At least I see it isn't limited to Texas.

[lepoisson]

Texas zoning is so confusing at times. You'll have a school built right on a main road that forces drivers to go from a 45mph to a 25mph limit and puts students at risk. And then you'll have houses built 20ft from a main road with a 45mph speed limit.

Land is far more expensive in other states, yet you almost never see houses built facing main roads, I'm guessing because of zoning laws.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by lepoisson

Texas zoning is so confusing at times. You'll have a school built right on a main road that forces drivers to go from a 45mph to a 25mph limit and puts students at risk. And then you'll have houses built 20ft from a main road with a 45mph speed limit.

Land is far more expensive in other states, yet you almost never see houses built facing main roads, I'm guessing because of zoning laws.

A good number of North Dallas homes ranging from rather spartan to legit mansions face 4 and 6 lane streets along portions of Royal, Preston, Walnut Hill, Midway south of Northwest Highway, Forest and several other streets.

I know some people east of Midway - their front gate faces Walnut Hill......FWIIW their home was built in the 1930s and sits on 1.95 acres. Just eyeballing these places it seems like the were originally sold as premium lots, most seem large per neighborhood and many of the original street facing homes seem large for the neighborhood.

Given sightline, power, sewage and drainage plus alley layouts it'd be tough to reorient most of these homes even after a teardown. Plus, knowing Dallas these lots were zoned with front elevations facing the street and it's likely very tough/impossible to get around that as well.


ETA - I was just thinking about this more...................OKC, Tulsa, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, El Paso, New Orleans and many others have neighborhoods with homes facing rather large streets as kind of a normal thing.

[TheOverdog]

It's normal across most of the US that is 'suburbanized'. Roads are more important that any individual house, and are ridiculously oversized for the amount of traffic they carry.

[naterator]

Road expansion.