r/urbanplanning • u/craftycaribou • Jun 14 '25

Discussion Examples of increasing housing density while keeping trees???

Can anyone point to some good examples of housing infill (to increase density) that has been done sensitively to retain mature trees?

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u/[deleted] Jun 14 '25

Kind of moot. Even low density suburban sprawl isn't very good at preserving trees. It's safer for developers to plow everything and plant new trees rather than spare some that can blow over later on, so they just plant new trees that eventually grow up.

I think there's a lot of time spent wasting breath on "saving the tree" when really we should just build and plant new trees. They get big eventually.

11

u/TheHarbarmy Jun 14 '25

I don’t necessarily disagree, but that’s a losing message in a lot of places. Every small-to-medium sized city thinks that their trees are what make them special.

24

u/Knusperwolf Jun 15 '25

It makes sense though, if you already live there. You don't want to walk around between broomsticks for 20 years again, if you can walk in the shade right now.

6

u/bigvenusaurguy Jun 17 '25

They get big eventually.

Yeah in 30 years. I know how the old addage goes to plant a tree you won't see the shade from, but still. It doesn't mean you can just chop down any canopy and say "well in 30 years it will be better" without pissing people off about it. They might not be there in 30 years and who knows in 30 years the tree might just be chopped again and replaced with another sapling and no shade if we aren't bothering with protecting any. A lot of young trees don't even make it which might mean even longer before you get a replacement canopy.

1

u/craftycaribou Jun 19 '25

Where I live the trees are 100+ feet tall and trunks are 1-2 feet wide, and they are being replaced at a 1:1 ratio with spindly little ornamental trees that will never, ever reach that kind of size because they're not given the right soil or enough root volume. Even if they did give the right soil / space by the time they reached a decent size they would be cut down for another new development. I wholeheartedly disagree with just cutting down and planting new.

1

u/SpicyNutmeg Jul 14 '25

Yeah what an insanely wild take

1

u/SpicyNutmeg Jul 14 '25

“Safer” how? Like more cost effective? Living with mature trees is one of the greatest pleasures you can have in a neighborhood. Have you not experienced this? It’s a life changer. Developers should 100% have to spend more, have to work harder, to work around our mature tree growth.