Sorry we're closed

Yes, it's a different form of housing to the conventional single detached home, but townhouses are planned for in low density residential neighbourhoods for a reason, because they are good for our city and our neighbourhoods.

It is good because it provides housing choice. Not everyone wants to live in a traditional house, not everyone can afford a traditional house, not everyone wants to spend their weekends in the garden, or their time and money maintaining their timber and tin Queenslander.

They provide diversity in our communities by offering choice to those at a stage where they want to downsize but stay in their suburb or they may be first home owners who want to live closer to the city but can't afford a traditional house on 600m2 of inner city land.

And yet we want to deny them that opportunity, the same opportunity we had when housing wasn't so scarce, simply because it means our trip to work will be longer?

In a recent report, the Reserve Bank of Australia called out NIMBYs and highlighted how this anti-development, not in my back yard attitude is a driving force behind making housing unaffordable.

And yet we refuse to learn from history. Virtually every major city across the world has faced the same issues.

In fact, the YIMBY Movement grew up in San Francisco for exactly this same reason – the city is growing, without sufficient housing supply. It is making housing unaffordable, forcing renters, key workers and young people out of the city.

Sound familiar?

What we want is to have the conversation but have it in an informed and balanced way; recognising that there is more than one way for our city to grow and that each decision we make about the shape of our city has a consequence in terms of greenspace, transport, affordability and lifestyle.

Otherwise we may as well throw up the 'closed' sign and tell our kids they'll have to leave town.