Conservation Design for Subdivisions: A Practical Guide to Creating Open Space Networks - Softcover

Arendt, Randall G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1559634898 ISBN 13: 9781559634892

Verlag: ISLAND PR, 1996

Inhaltsangabe

In most communities, land use regulations are based on a limited model that allows for only one end result: the production of more and more suburbia, composed of endless subdivisions and shopping centers, that ultimately covers every bit of countryside with "improvements." Fortunately, sensible alternatives to this approach do exist, and methods of developing land while at the same time conserving natural areas are available.

In Conservation Design for Subdivisions, Randall G. Arendt explores better ways of designing new residential developments than we have typically seen in our communities. He presents a practical handbook for residential developers, site designers, local officials, and landowners that explains how to implement new ideas about land-use planning and environmental protection. Abundantly illustrated with site plans (many of them in color), floor plans, photographs, and renditions of houses and landscapes, it describes a series of simple and straightforward techniques that allows for land-conserving development.

The author proposes a step-by-step approach to conserving natural areas by rearranging density on each development parcel as it is being planned so that only half (or less) of the buildable land is turned into houselots and streets. Homes are built in a less land-consumptive manner that allows the balance of property to be permanently protected and added to an interconnected network of green spaces and green corridors. Included in the volume are model zoning and subdivision ordinance provisions that can help citizens and local officials implement these innovative design ideas.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Randall Arendt was formerly vice president for conservation planning for the Natural Lands Trust and is now president of Greener Prospects, a land use consulting firm in Narragansett, Rhode Island. He is the author of Growing Greener (Island Press, 1999) and Growing Greener Ordinance Language (Natural Lands Trust, 2001).

Randall Arendt was formerly vice president for conservation planning for the Natural Lands Trust and is now president of Greener Prospects, a land use consulting firm in Narragansett, Rhode Island. He is the author of Growing Greener (Island Press, 1999) and Growing Greener Ordinance Language (Natural Lands Trust, 2001).

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Conservation Design for Subdivisions

A Practical Guide to Creating Open Space Networks

By Randall G. Arendt

ISLAND PRESS

Copyright © 1996 Island Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-55963-489-2

Contents

ABOUT ISLAND PRESS, 
Title Page, 
Copyright Page, 
Epigraph, 
Preface - WHY THIS HANDBOOK?, 
Introduction - NATURAL LANDS: SPECIAL PLACES IN YOUR COMMUNITY, 
1 - How This Handbook Can Help You, 
2 - Conventional Layouts versus "Conservation Designs": Comparisons and Contrasts, 
3 - Advantages of Conservation Design, 
4 - Roles and Responsibilities of Various Parties, 
5 - Steps Involved in Designing Conservation Subdivisions: A Straightforward Approach, 
6 - Linking Conservation Lands in Future Subdivisions to Create an Interconnected Open Space Network: A Greener Vision, 
7 - Creating Conservation Subdivision Designs on Seven Different Sites, 
8 - Regulatory Improvements, 
9 - Management Techniques for Conservation Lands, 
10 - Toward a New Land Ethic in Your Community, 
Appendix A - SUMMARY OF CONSERVATION STATISTICS FOR THE SEVEN SITES DESCRIBED IN CHAPTER 7, 
Appendix B - RESULTS OF CITIZENS' DESIGN EXERCISE AT POCONOS WORKSHOP, 
Appendix C - DETAILED HOUSELOT DESIGNS AT HIGHER NET DENSITIES, 
Appendix D - SAMPLE HOUSE DESIGNS FOR COMPACT LOTS IN OPEN SPACE LAYOUTS, 
Appendix E - ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF OPEN SPACE UPON REAL ESTATE, 
Appendix F - SAMPLE OF REAL ESTATE ADS MENTIONING PROXIMITY OF HOMES TO GREENWAYS, 
Appendix G - SAMPLE OF NEWSPAPER ARTICLES RELATED TO CONSERVATION DESIGN ISSUES, 
Appendix H - MODEL ORDINANCE PROVISIONS, 
Recommended Further Reading, 
Index, 
ISLAND PRESS BOARD OF DIRECTORS, 

CHAPTER 1

How This Handbook Can Help You

This handbook has been written and illustrated to make it relatively easy for readers to learn the basic steps involved in designing residential developments that maximize open space conservation without reducing overall building density.

In addition to working within the existing legal densities allowed under current zoning, this technique allows the land protected in new conservation subdivisions to remain under private ownership and control—preferably in an undivided manner and according to certain management standards—typically by a homeowners' association or a local land trust.

This handbook also shows how communities can use this technique, through state-of-the-art zoning and subdivision standards, to create an interconnected network of permanent open space using the conservation subdivision as the basic building block.

In addition to those designated wetlands, floodplains, and steep slopes that are often already regulated under federal, state, or local law, the types of open space that can easily be protected through the simple design approaches illustrated in this handbook include upland woodlands, meadows, and fields, plus historic, cultural, or scenic features of local or greater significance.

Readers might wonder why they should bother learning how to design subdivision sites for both conservation and development, when more commonly practiced approaches seem to work adequately. Here are several reasons:

(1) Simply put, conventional approaches to subdivision development ultimately produce nothing more than houselots and streets. This process eventually "checkerboards" rural areas into a seamless blanket of "wall-to-wall subdivisions" with no open space, except for perhaps a few remnant areas that are too wet, steep, or floodprone to build on. Whether one is a landowner, developer, realtor, planner, engineer, surveyor, landscape architect, or local official, few people can take a great deal of professional pride in helping to create just another conventional subdivision, converting every acre of natural land within a site to lawns, driveways, and streets.

(2) Alternative methods of designing for the same overall density while also preserving 50% or more of the site are not difficult to master, and they create more attractive and pleasing living environments that sell more easily and appreciate faster than conventional "houselot-and-street" developments (see Appendix E, "Economic Benefits of Open Space upon Real Estate"). This is particularly true for three large and growing sectors of the housing market—young households, single-parent families, and "empty-nesters."

(3) The significant land protection achievable through "conservation subdivision design" should help smooth the local review and approval process by responding to many environmental concerns even before they are raised by officials or by members of the public interested in preserving wildlife habitat and protecting water quality in neighborhood streams, ponds, and aquifers.

(4) Conservation subdivisions are simply better places to live. When well designed, the majority of lots abut or face onto a variety of open spaces, from formal "greens" or "commons" to wildflower meadows, farm fields, mature woodlands, tidal or freshwater wetlands, and/or active recreational facilities. At present, only golf course developments offer comparable amounts of open space, but those green areas are managed for only one kind of activity, and they typically convert all previously natural areas (except wetlands and steep slopes) into intensively managed lawns that are off limits to everyone but golfers and that are uninviting to most forms of wildlife (except the more tolerant animals, such as geese).

One measure of the demand for open space among homebuyers is the fact that nearly 40% of people living in golf course developments do not even play the game. One successful Florida golf course developer near Tampa has found that many non-golfers are attracted to those of his lots that back onto wetland areas, offering views of egrets and herons and of tree boughs laden with Spanish moss. In fact, in some of the new golf course developments in the Mid-Atlantic region, four out of five sales are to non-golfers. According to published reports, these people are buying "the parklike views of open space, views that can command a premium in a home's initial sale price and its resale value" (see Appendix G for a feature article on this subject from the The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 26, 1993).

This handbook will show how virtually anyone can adapt—and improve upon—the basic technique used for decades by the designers of golf course communities. Briefly stated, that technique is to outline the open space first and to let its size and location become the central organizing element driving the rest of the design. The next three steps are to locate the houses around the open space, to trace in access street alignments, and finally to set the lot lines (where applicable).

It is almost as simple as it sounds. Naturally, a number of resource base maps are required (typically pertaining to soils, slopes, wetlands, floodplains, existing vegetation, wildlife habitats, and historic resources), and several elemental principles relating to physical layout and neighborhood design should be observed. These are illustrated and described in later chapters.

Of course, this publication does not reduce the need to engage a team of professionals (including a landscape architect or physical planner, in addition to a surveyor and engineer). It can, however, make everyone's role clearer by articulating a "greener vision" for residential developments of nearly every...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: ISLAND PR
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1996
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1559634898
• ISBN 13: 9781559634892
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 203
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar