For example, zero lot line houses, wide-shallow lots and zipper lots are strategies that allow detached houses to be built on smaller lots. Clustering houses on a single lot can also save space. Townhouses and row houses are a form of single-family housing that uses land more efficiently. But people like larger lots. In the POS survey, fully 83 percent of the Washington voters said that they wanted to live in an area where they can have large front and back yards.
Neighborhoods often resist efforts to increase density.
The owners of single-family houses may oppose infill for fear that apartment houses will alter the character of the neighborhood. The POS survey finds that 77 percent disapprove of development that allows taller apartment and condominium buildings or single-family houses on smaller lots to increase density of their neighborhoods. Developers need to be creative to overcome this resistance. Smaller multi-family building can be designed to look like houses. Urban cottages can be clustered on a single lot.