Why do Canadians prefer huge houses squeezed together in the middle of nowhere?

[The Mad Monk]

I noticed it in Asher's house thread, and now I'm seeing it here:

http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/photos/2012/09/27/li-katz-house.jpg[/img]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2012/09/26/mb-katz-shindleman-house-arizona.html

What's up with that?

[snoopy369]

That's pretty common in new developments. The developer owns the land and builds those houses they get orders for (or anticipate orders for) next to each other to save time. Those are pretty obviously in a development group - they're nearly the same house, just with a few different options selected. Even the roofs are the same shape!

[Asher]

It's not a developer choice usually, it's the city. Urban sprawl is a problem Canadian cities do not want to have. There are population density requirements for new developments.

You could build without running into anything for dozens of miles in all directions of Calgary, but a massive city with low population density doesn't help anyone. It creates a ton of problems - you can't have efficient public transit, etc.

PS: The house in the above picture is in Arizona.

[Uncle Sparky]

Sam Katz is mayor of Winnipeg, where I live. He has a very close relationship with a developer who has received an extraordinary amount of business from the City. Today it was agreed to have an external probe into some aspects of this relationship - particularely a 3 for one land swap that did not seem to go through proper channels. The optics are very bad and Katz (pronounced kates) has very few defenders left.

His Winnipeg house is enormous, and he drives a comically oversized SUV. This is not typical of Canadians, and the photo is of his Arizona house, where he spends quite a bit of time and recently purchased an shelf company for $1, from the same developer. I don't think Katz will be running for office again.

[The Mad Monk]

x-redgreen'd

Yeah, but the purchaser is still a Canadian. A representative Canadian, even.

[MrFun]

nvm

[Uncle Sparky]

Katz is not a representative Canadian. In fact - you can keep his if you like. These are representative Canadians -

[The Mad Monk]

[DinoDoc]

Representative Canadian:

[Ben Kenobi]

Urban sprawl is a problem Canadian cities do not want to have.

Why is urban sprawl a problem?

[Asher]

Why is urban sprawl a problem?

Are you serious?

[Ben Kenobi]

Are you serious?

Canada has a ****-ton of land. Why is urban sprawl a problem?

[Tupac Shakur]

Representative Canadians:

[Wezil]

x-redgreen'd

Yeah, but the purchaser is still a Canadian. A representative Canadian, even.

What about the house next to it? Does a Cdn own it?

[Asher]

Canada has a ****-ton of land. Why is urban sprawl a problem?

Hint: it's not lack of land that's the problem.

I'll let you apply your massive brainpower.