07/26/2000 Env Bd Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Search

• • • • • design. the four-step approach is so user - friendly and simple to understand that in 1996 a group of non - designers (including local officials. developers. and grassroots conservationists) mastered the process in an hour and produced their own competent con- servation designs with relative ease. Those results are reproduced in the handbook's ap- pendix. along with model ordinance lan- guage that should help readers introduce these procedures into their zoning and sub- division codes. An important feature of the model code language is the treatment of conservation subdivisions as a use by right" (rather than as a special exception or conditional use), together with standards for the quantity, qual- ity. and configuration of open space. This recommended approach can aid in discour- aging conventional layouts and help ensure sound design. Toward this end, the handbook has been written to help persuade local offi- cials that this approach should be welcomed and even actively promoted as an alterna- tive to cookie-cutter development. From a broader perspective. the general location of conservation land in these kinds of subdivisions can be predetermined through a community-wide open space plan. thereby ensuring that individual conserva- tion areas in separate but adjoining devel- opments will ultimately merge together to form an interconnected network .of open. space linking numerous properties that will some day be developed. • TRACK RECORDS SPEAK VOLUMES The track records of several conservation subdivisions detttonstrute the advantages such designs offer. Farmview was the fastest - selling devel- opment in its price range (high 8200,0(K)s) in Bucks County. Pa., despite the fact that its lots wcrc one -third to one -half the usual 1 -acre size that is required for conventional Workshop subdivisions in this district by Lower INakelicld Township. • What distinguishes Farntview's layout is the fact that its 310 house Tots cover less than hull the parcel and that a large number of homes abut either 137 acres of permanently protected fields or 100 acres of wet woods on the 431 -acre site. The developer. Realen Homes, questioned the conventional wisdom that people move to rural areas primarily to live on large Tots; figuring instead that what really attracts buyers is rural ambience, as reflected in sweeping views of farm fields that many of its houses were positioned to •,enjoy. The fast sales at Farmview were a signifi- cant factor in Realen's impressive 24 percent annual growth in total sales during the slug- . gish 1989 -1991 period. Reduced infrastruc- ture costs at Farmview, with its more com- pact development form, contributed to the project's profitability. according to its presi- dent. Joe Duckworth. Although subdivision Figure 7. Drawing in the lot lines.