> Which might be ok for the surrounding land, but isn't fine for the inhabitants of the city.
Even when the "surrounding land" is a 15-20 minute bicycle ride away, or a hoping on a train to smaller a little farther away (or perhaps have train stations at Nature preserves)?
Or perhaps green spaces like New York's Central Park or Toronto's Leslie Street Spit:
* https://tommythompsonpark.ca/about/
* https://www.google.com/search?as_q=Leslie+Street+Spit&as_st=...
regularly interspersed between housing. Toronto used to have a number of rivers/ravines that got filled in for housing:
* https://www.blogto.com/city/2014/02/5_lost_rivers_that_run_u...