This is because we were one of the first Townhomes built in Sunnyvale. What makes the Cluster homes special are the single family features you find in these homes. Every house has a garage and most are attached. Everybody's mail is delivered to their door. The garbage is picked up in front of everybody's house.
Every home has a private yard.
We also built out stucco walls around the windows in order to insure as much privacy for the homeowners as we could. The idea being that with the yards being so close together, people on the 2nd floor would not be able to look into the yards next to them. We also tried to solve some construction problems relating to noise. We double framed the interior walls to try to stop the transference of noise. We ran the plumbing down interior walls and not shared walls so you won't hear your neighbors water running.