Yes! Only 2-3% of properties sell in any given year. The chances of getting the perfect site for the perfect project are very low. And every walkable mixed use street is only a small portion of the much larger dense residential neighborhood around it.
Sure, if we were starting from scratch, maybe there would be a gentle gradient of density down from Five Points or Village District. But:
- We’re not starting from scratch; townhouses have been artificially suppressed in this neighborhood for a century, and the “better” sites aren’t available for redevelopment
- Even if we were starting from scratch, this site is still close enough to business districts that it would be townhouses, not SFHs (and the Caswell site on Glenwood would be mid-rise!) – and this site is definitely close enough to downtown that it should be multifamily; it’s as far from the Capitol as, say, The Grey (four-story condos) or townhouses near Raleigh Blvd.
The Williamson townhouse plan did not seek to simply maximize the site; it left the key landscape feature of the site (the grand lawn) and embraced it with houses. It’s just 7 units/acre – hardly denser than small-lot single family, but better because it consolidates the open space around the edges.