LandChoices: Opportunities for Landowners to Preserve Their Land

Land Choices: Changing Development in America

Town plans to air out
conservation-development issue
From The Providence Journal (RI)

A public hearing next month centers on zoning changes to permit housing developments that allow for more open space.

01:00 AM EST on Thursday, March 16, 2006
By THOMAS J. MORGAN
Journal Staff Writer

SMITHFIELD -- The town is poised to adopt a new zoning philosophy dealing with housing developments, one that would seek to preserve the natural features of the land and preserve open space.

The Town Council will take up the issue, known as conservation development, at a public hearing scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on April 4.

Frederick Presley, town director of planning and economic development, said adoption of conservation zoning means that a developer who plans a number of houses on, for example, 80,000-square-foot lots, would be permitted to shrink the lot size to, say, 20,000, but retain the same number of lots.

"Our ordinance proposes that 60 percent of the land would be left for open space," Presley said.

He said that among the advantages for the developers would be a savings in the cost of building roads. "It's a lot cheaper to develop," he said. "There would be lower cost for water and sewer infrastructures. They find the houses sell for more because people don't feel as isolated."

Donald T. Burns, chairman of the Smithfield Conservation Commission, said that panel has endorsed the idea.

"We're in favor of it," he said. "You look at a piece of land and say what's the most attractive piece? You group the houses, conserve the open space, instead of a cluster that gets the smaller lots close to the road."

If the council approves the zoning amendment, Smithfield would join six other Rhode Island communities that have adopted the procedure: South Kingstown, Richmond, Exeter, North Kingstown, Hopkinton and Cumberland. In addition, North Smithfield, Burrillville and Scituate are considering the same action.

The concept is the brainchild of Randall Arendt, of Narragansett, whose work in the discipline has made him a national authority on conservation development.

"Very early on," he told the Providence Journal last month, "I was taught to look closely at existing site features and to develop around them. Open space is the determining factor, rather than open space being the leftover bits." Stone walls, large trees and old trails are among the features that would be marked for preservation under conservation development.

Presley said that under the proposed ordinance developers would be required to go through a 10-step process.

"They have to look at all sensitive areas -- historical, cultural and environmental -- and take those areas out" as development targets, he said. "Then then they come up with, say, 30 lots. Our target is 60 percent open space out of that entire open 30 acres."

He said the town would save money on road maintenance because the amount of new roads would be minimal.

"And the open space would be available to all people in town, so it's a big plus," he said.

If adopted, the ordinance amendment would go into effect 30 days later.

From the article
"Our ordinance proposes that 60 percent of the land would be left for open space," Presley said.

He said that among the advantages for the developers would be a savings in the cost of building roads. "It's a lot cheaper to develop," he said. "There would be lower cost for water and sewer infrastructures. They find the houses sell for more because people don't feel as isolated."