Quote:
Originally Posted by clark wellington
Why is infrastructure for density substantially different than for lower density? At least things like sidewalks and streets I assume are the same. Is it like sewer capacity? Or am I missing something obvious?
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The roads around Lincoln Yards are already clogged for big parts of the day, Elston/Ashland/Armitage is confusing and dangerous. Then you want to come in and add thousands of new housing units and millions of SF in office space? Those residents and workers have to get around somehow, so you've gotta either expand the roads or build transit. Neither is cheap. Lincoln Yards is also along the river - part of why the traffic is already bad - so fixing the transportation issue means more costly bridges.
The 78 has similar issues. Metra is a wall on the east side, the river (and railyards) are a wall on the west. Building more ways in/out means costly infrastructure and bridges/underpasses.
Even a basic street grid on flat land is difficult to finance. The city has very high construction standards for new streets compared to the suburbs, the developer (and residents) have to pay for that. You can do private streets built to a lower standard, but then your residents get zero services from the city in terms of snowplow, tree maintenance, etc and have to pay high HOA fees on top of their taxes. No free lunch.
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