ria. In quantitative terms those recommendations enjoyed recognition, but in the
context of quality (the positioning, design and utility of open spaces) the research
was incomplete.
The contractor-provider preference, almost without exception, is to dump,
gulch and creek marginal land into relatively useless and potentially unsafe
‘reserves’, although aesthetically these can often be quite pleasing, establishing a
tall-tree foil and backdrop to the boiled lollies effect of suburban housing. But
remnant plant habitats also become ‘dump reserves’; local garbage tips, from
which plant species threatening to the native flora and wildlife, proliferate. Worse,
they may also become the haunt of the truant, the deviant, drug users and stray-
ing dogs, and are shunned as unsafe, unwholesome and
generally undesirable. Children in most modern suburbs
are enjoined to keep away from ‘the reserve’, to stay
inside, to play in the backyard or, a parental irony, to play
out on the street.
Subdivision-of-land contractors have come to accept
the allocation of 20 to 30 per cent of the most handsome
parts of their raw landscape for streets, turning circles,
car parks and utility easements; yet they have tradition-
ally fought like ferrets against the lesser (around 10 per
cent) statutory setting-aside of land – usually scrap land
- for ‘amenity’ spaces (reserves in Australasia). The
performance-based considerations were aired conceptu-
ally by Lane Kendig and others in Performance Zoning
(1980). - The detached ranch-style house has long been the
preferred housing option for North Americans, and
especially so in bungalow-style for Australasians. In
a stylized depiction the space allocation on a notional
acre (or half hectare) works through for eight houses
as shown – with noaccessible open space. - A built-to-boundary option (lot-lined in North
America) puts all houses onto a boundary line,
saving a side yard and maybe the front yard – allo-
cating 30 per cent of the overall site as open space. - The attached town-house (terraced) option, each
dwelling provided with a small private walled-in
outdoor living area, further reduces lot sizes and
length of access road, leaving 58 per cent of the site
as open space. - The apartment option allows 75 per cent of the site to
be allocated as open space. The last three of these
options leads to a consideration of the use to which
the left-over open space is put: the residential choice
being for occupier usage, the community preference
Urban Growth Management 235Ranch-style: Lots 75 per cent; road
25 per cent; open space nil.Lot-lined: Lots 50 per cent; road 20
per cent; open space 30 per cent.Terraced: Lots 30 per cent; road 12
per cent; open space 58 per cent.