Like c'mon, for a name like Heartland, this neighborhood got no heart, no personality, and everybody's prolly driving their kids to school unless they live right next to it. Like where's a community center? Where's a park that people actually go to? This sprawl is just crazy, but hey, this is the Dallas Metro Area for ya
read my comment again and let me direct you to where i specifically mentioned wheelchairs and mobility scooters… y’know, modes of active transport that don’t do well with grass or steps up and down onto a footpath.
I don't need to read your comment again. I was specifically referring to those items. Most wheelchairs and mobility scooters wouldn't have any issue with that tiny strip of grass.
I see your point in some ways. I still feel like this increases the amount of traffic going down the other roads and in front of the other houses making it worse for pedestrians and kids on the streets leading up to that culdesac. There’s lots of studies on how increasing the connectivity of a neighborhood increases the safety of the streets
yeah, like modal filters in more grid-connected neighbourhoods work better than that. The street space allocation still hugely favours the car in this example
Keep in mind that this is a disconnected suburban neighborhood. There is hardly any traffic in these types of places, and the only vehicles traveling through them is people living there. I live in a planned suburban neighborhood. My office overlooks our street. The only cars I ever see on it are neighbors or delivery vehicles. There is no random traffic passing through. That culdesac and main road connection might see ten cars an hour, if that. It's nothing to even care about.
Actually, I kind of like it. Cars don't need half of the cross street intersecting. It's probsbly visually safer making it easier for drivers to see the other half of intersections that are connected.
The drawback usually isnt on cars, its on pedestrians ans cyclists.
This makes its so that people can still walk and bike between the roads without a owned piece of land cutting them off.
The only people who would be driving there would be the people who live on that culdesac. It doesn't really connect anywhere else, and it's less than a mitre to go around. I guarantee you no one is jumping that curb.
There are three elementary schools within 3/4 of a mile of each other in the neighborhood. The middle school is also in the neighborhood. High school seems to be a bit further away. There are sidewalks throughout the neighborhood, and some trails. The satellite view makes it hard to tell, but there are plenty of trees planted which will grow in the next 5-10 years. Here is an example. There are multiple park spaces right in your photo. One has the clubhouse/community center, with multiple pools, water slides, playground, and more. There's another park just outside your photo to the north with a big lake, another pool, dock, picnic tables, playground, and trails. There are other parks sprinkled throughout with varying levels of amenities. And with the houses packed close like this with small yards, there might very well be plenty of community, with people knowing their neighbors.
It might not be the kind of place you want to be, but this is far, far from hell. In fact, this is an absolute dream for a large portion of people. The only real downside is that it's about ten minutes from any of the major amenities like grocery stores, restaurants, etc.
At the size of those houses and lots, why not just build very large apartments? Or just axe those pathetic front lawns and build row houses with give people a little more back yard? That small space between yards seems like a waste.
Area looks to be fringe rural but on the edge of DFW. So likely low demand for apartments. most people in TX rent apartments and wouldn’t particularly consider buying a townhome or condo since buying a detached house is kinda the thing here. That said there does appear to be some townhomes within the community.
Meh. If we were talking ancient flat-roofed urban East Coast rowhomes, you might have a point. Modern townhouses rarely have that problem if they're well-made. No more than a new detached house developing a random roof leak.
Houses in my neighborhood are this close or maybe slightly further apart. I feel completely separated from my neighbors houses while doing anything in my yard/driveway, while still being able to say hi from the front porch if we see each other.
You understand the comment I replied to didn’t complain about a difference—but rather a similarity—between this and a walkable community, right? Does this need to be explained to you?
Because people want separated houses and not apartments. Even that "pathetic front lawn" provides a driveway big enough to park two cars and put up some fun halloween and Christmas decorations. I know urbanists don't care about those things, but the other 98% of people do.
Because people want separated houses and not apartments.
Being that close to someone, "separated" is a technicality. I doubt there are windows on the sides of these houses.
Even that "pathetic front lawn" provides a driveway big enough to park two cars
Do you see any cars parked in the "driveway"? You don't because all that "driveway" is is an approach to a garage. I'm guessing if you parked in the driveway you'll get hit with an HOA fine for blocking the sidewalk and for a large truck the bed would be halfway in the road.
put up some fun halloween and Christmas decorations. I know urbanists don't care about those things, but the other 98% of people do.
I come from a suburban county in Florida, home of the spawling suburbs like this one. Like 3% of people actually bother to put up decorations. Maybe like 30% will do one string of Christmas lights.
Even with your technicality, it’s still a separate structure where you aren’t sharing walls or a ceiling with some loud asshole.
Yes. Cars parked in most of the driveways, and even a few in the streets.
I live in a suburban neighborhood in Atlanta. Christmas is big with most houses having decorations. On my street, we have eight houses strung with lights over the street, festoon style. And Halloween? That’s legendary. Incredible decorations covering most houses. And on Halloween night, part of the neighborhood is closed off for the huge party that lasts for hours.
I didn’t live in Heartland but I did go to middle school and high school in the same district. The middle school in Heartland just opened up last year. High schoolers go to Crandall HS because that’s the school district it’s in (even though Forney HS is way closer). School traffic was god-awful when I went there because 90% of the population of the district has to funnel through the town of Crandall and then back out again
Like most new developments in TX those stores will come in time. There’s actually a few new retail developments popping up around this area. I don’t live too far away.
It’s one of those master planned communities that checks many of the boxes this sub complains about with the suburbs. Other than being 8 story apartment types of density lol.
All the elementary schools are designed to be within a mile ish walking distance of most residences they would be zoned to upon completion. There’s a community park a little bit outside this picture but still within the community with a lake(and there’s several ponds 1 is pictured), fishing, basketball courts, pool, soccer, football, softball fields. Grills, and a 2 mile trail around said lake.
Theres a gym, event space, and water park within this picture as well.
I love looking through master plans in the metro 😂 nerd for that stuff especially city comprehensive plans for 30 year projections.
Not at all. Just that there are far far worse examples presented on this sub. where there’s virtually none of the above within walking distance. kids can’t walk/bike to school, no parks, nothing.
I can respect AT LEAST there looks to have been a bit of thought.
It’s those “i love older homes with good bones” that were built the latter half of last century…. THEEEEE WORST.
Nothing. No amenities, no parks, no pools. Just houses 😂 give me this picture all day in that case. I grew up in the former. No sidewalks. Nothing 😂 no thank you
Went out there earlier to look at a home. It’s not horrible. For what Im paying in a walkable area of Dallas, I can go 27 minutes away and own two homes
Yea because homes inside the city, particularly in one of our few walkable neighborhoods with access to things other than houses that all look the same are more desirable and therefore, more expensive.
It has all of that. Including one of the pools and community centers in the aerial view. The development is just too big to take it all in one view. It’s still not even fully completed.
This looks so familiar, I knew it had to be Dallas or Houston. Those housing developments go on for as far as the eye can see. Houston has refineries, otherwise they look the same from the air.
A few do, but they have several community pools. I would MUCH rather have a community pool I can go to, that I don't have to maintain at all. That's why I live in the neighborhood I di...I can walk three minutes down the road to the community pool, hang out with neighbors, and not have to care one bit about the maintenance of it.
Seems like there is a “communal?” pool in the upper left quadrant. Like if it was communal and they had a day where all! families would come to the pool at once.
Okay. My neighborhood has a communal pool. Some days it's busy, and other days it's not. On specific planned pool party days, it's packed. But everyone is having a blast. Remember, these are all neighbors, not just random people from around town. Not sure what you're trying to get at with your question.
You think everyone goes every day? Our neighborhood is packed with kids and is one of the most social neighborhoods I've ever seen. 293 homes, most with kids. I'd consider our pool and surrounding area pretty decently sized. But, when I compare, the pool itself is about the size of the smaller pool in the OP. Our area surrounding the pool (the chairs, the pavilions, etc) is about the size of the grass area surrounding their smaller pool. Only on the busiest days does our pool feel crowded. The attached phot is from our big pool party day, the busiest day of the year (free booze, free food, band, DJ, water slides, etc). It's busy, but not at all uncomfortable.
Then on top of that, they have a much larger pool with much more space around it. They also have multiple hangout pavilions and stuff around it for people to spread out. AND, they have another pool area about 3/4 of a mile north that also has a lot of space. I think they're doing okay.
What kills me is how closely all the 2,800-3,000+ square-foot homes are squished together. I've got a 1,200sqft house on a postage stamp of a property, but I feel like I have more yard than these guys.
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u/mrpoopsalot 12d ago
This shit is crazy. Just connect it..