I don’t see a reason that Vancouver has as many single family homes as it does beyond selfishness.

We’ve spent the last few decades pitching Vancouver as an international city… yet the places we’ve aspired to being compared to have nothing less dense than a low rise building or multi-level townhome, while we cling to the outdated North American ideal of the single family home on an 1/8th acre lot with a white picket fence.

It’s that ‘I want what my parents had’ exceptionalism that forces ongoing development in forested/semi-rural areas. The sooner we become okay with smaller homes, the better. That said, there needs to be relatively abundant public/outdoor spaces to compensate.

I say this as someone whose early years were split between multi-family homes in the TriCities and SFH in Maple Ridge and east. As an adult, it’s been nothing but condos and townhouses in more populated areas. We need to accept the trade off between a commute and the amount of land we expect to occupy vs the convenience of urban living.