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On one hand, I agree...but a lot of people (myself, really) dislike urban living, yet have to live close enough to the city to have a job. So therein lies the rub.
The key to quality urban living is to have plenty of parks and open space within the urbanized area. Some communities do it rather well. Other communities just don't have clue.
I lived in the woods for 26 years. The house was built among the trees. We had great privacy, silence, darkness at night. But I wouldn't do it again, and both of us wish we had moved sooner. Living in the woods is harder work, in some ways. In our case, the daily walk to the mailbox was steeply up hill. We fended off woodpeckers who liked our cedar siding. We generally got a mouse or two inside every winter. DH blew leaves every fall, and he did it for several weeks. (To be fair we did not mow the lawn, because we had no lawn.) We had a terrible time getting ornamentals to grow. Tree limbs hung down over the roof. We did have a tree cut down that had been hit by lightning and was threatening to fall on the house. Another time we actually had a tree fall down across our driveway. You get the picture.
I like the look of an established neighborhood, but I don't want to live among the trees ever again.
I lived in a neighborhood surrounded by forest. Years of bad storms had those trees falling all over the place. In one case our power was knocked out for three days in the middle of the hottest days of summer by a tree falling on a power line. It fell across my neighbors driveway, had she been home her car would have been totalled. So no I wouldn't do it again. I love trees and the it's a beautiful sight to live among lots of trees. We had so many deer and wildlife as a result and would see them on a daily basis in our yard. But I would always worry about a tree falling on my house, car, or even me.
Bought a house in Sudbury, MA on a heavily wooded lot.
Removed 7 trees near the house within days of moving in.
Would do it again.
Now live in Colorado.
Would NEVER buy in a wooded area.
Forest fires.
I live in the city and love it. Small lot (3000 sqft) to which we added 3 trees and plan to add one more.
The key to quality urban living is to have plenty of parks and open space within the urbanized area. Some communities do it rather well. Other communities just don't have clue.
Excellent point. However, at least for my hubby (myself, somewhat too), a park or open space isn't MY land, i.e., I can't plant what I want, where I want, or do anything I wish to on it, as it's public/city property.
A truly wooded area will have more wildlife. Check the covenants and bylaws regarding this if you want the wildlife respected or want to find out if there's a yearly roundup and killing of flightless geese...just so there are no surprises.
Realize if there are lots of critters, even if you have a sunny spot there can still be issues growing flowers and veggies. Not impossible, just have to make provisions.
And, even if neighbors beside the most densely wooded undeveloped acreage ask the owners of the land whom they go to church with if they can buy some of it as a buffer and he says no he's never selling it...there can still be a bulldozer in the road the next week. Clearing it for townhomes.
Then realize, more buildout, less absorption and the runoff can become a problem. And where you may have planted a rain garden because that was a wet area may no longer get any water, the flow having been blocked off in development of the new community.
Not that it's all bad...just things that need to be dealt with.
We have several 100' tall trees on our property and other than windstorm debris no problems. The conifers we have here do not send roots into the sewers or under the foundations anyway, plus we get a lot of rain so the roots remain shallow. There are about 8 homes under this canopy.
When we lived among the conifers we loved collecting the pinecones for decor and the kids bagged them and sold them to the no-tree people or hard-wood people sans pinecones.
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