I live in a UK town a hundred times that size, and still have reasonable access to proper green space. This does require: -modern multi-storey buildings; -publ

I live in a UK town a hundred times that size, and still have reasonable access to proper green space. This does require: -modern multi-storey buildings; -public transit. Which requires similar infra to cars. Economically, a town this size supports a train station to other towns, which is... huge. I've gone to after-work drinks in a different, similar-sized town. So has my partner. And environmentally, there's no real objection to building up a bit (it might be a net positive, by shoring up aforementioned train station). Adding a whole new town anywhere in the region would be a nightmare. And frankly, for all the current (deserved) bad press on flats and the romanticism of single-family homes, an awful lot of the latter are terrible. Leaking, creaking, cold, subsiding, dangerous wiring and something else rhyming. I'm not meaningfully further from nature, either.