clustered development vs single home per lot

i hear some people think every lot in the country should be a cohousing community that is a clustered development of say 31 homes including a common house built on 4 acres of the lot. other people like to be secluded with one home on a lot. what are other peoples opinions on this? and if every lot had a community how could there be enough jobs to go around? and then you have the town where businesses would be and where people live as well. should there be a balance between community and get away and if so how could this be worked out? i am just trying to figure this stuff out.

I think its down to indevidual choice and money . Plus what you want to do with the land
A four acre plot would do me just fine , veg some hens, bees and even a goat or two ..... ok maybe three if there are lots of trees .
Or how about four x 4 acre plots with the four houses on ajacent corners sharing a big wind mill

This is really a cultural feature, the difference between Europe and America. Europe has clustered development where people live all close and convenient to one another and the fields are some walk to get to versus America, where individual ownership of land is more important, so people live right on the fields that they own and work and town is some walk to get to.

However you do things, there is an inherent conflict between people being social animals wanting to be together and plants needing space to spread out and grow. It works out all right in the end though, because all that walking is good exercise.

My sister lives in a clustered development in CA. Some perks - one playground for all the kids instead of each family having their own swing set, one pool, really nice walking trails, open space close to town. Minuses - the landscaping crews use whatever chemicals they want, very few sustainable/environmental practices are being used on the shared spaces, lots of rules by the neighborhood association, and noise/privacy issues with the neighbors being so close.

If you could pick your neighbors and have more say on the rules it might be a really cool place to live. As it is, tho, I'd rather stay far away from ChemLawn, even if it means I have to mow myself.

I like the idea of building clusters for different ages.

Nice to have say 15-20 homes surrounding a central park , to keep all the kids inside a safe boundary, and keep the noisy ones together.

Then as you empty the nest, a shared central garden, and shared workshops, with NO kids to worry about with tools around would be nice.

finally , heavily screened, but close small homes for us cranky, and deaf, old hermits....