I've been told this is the case in many European cities to encourage, for example, building a parking garage over grabbing a lot of space for a parking lot. Ind

I've been told this is the case in many European cities to encourage, for example, building a parking garage over grabbing a lot of space for a parking lot. Indeed, things seemed denser over there in my experience -- though I can't speak to whether or not this was in play, or even the only cause.