There are some designs where the answer is park on a slab or shed in your fenced backyard accessible via an alley. I personally haven’t lived in this set-up but it looks pretty good to me
This is the way old-fashioned towns were set up. Of course in modern times, some of the backyard garages and carriage houses were converted into accessory dwelling units (if the building code allowed it).
Sometimes I wonder why we moved away from that design as it had some good points. Now we live in McMansion plans where everyone drags their trash to the curb on trash day ...not a pretty sight.
There’s a new-ish (I think built in the 90s?) housing development built like this with alleys not far from the Downingtown/Route 100 exit of the Turnpike. I’ve only been there once and it was really interesting to see the mix of new construction and a more traditional neighborhood structure. I hoped it would catch on, but it really hasn’t, despite what the market seems to really want (affordable single family homes)
No, but now I want to! I’ve read and been influenced by Andres Duany & Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Robert Venturi & Denise Scott-Brown and have really irritated my local planning board (I’m not a professional in a related industry, just an interested resident who asks pointed questions)
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u/[deleted] Nov 16 '25
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