Conservation Development

What is conservation development?

Conservation Development is a creative land use technique that allows a community to guide growth to the most appropriate areas within a parcel of land in order to minimize negative impacts to the environment and community character.  The major goal is to protect at least fifty percent of a parcel as meaningful open space in perpetuity, with no cost to the community, so that important natural, cultural and recreational resources are protected.

How does conservation development differ from a conventional development?

• Conservation development sets high standards for the quantity and quality of protected open space.  Typically 50-70% of the land, without development constraints, is permanently protected using conservation development versus no open space protection for conventional zoning.  Development is actually used to preserve important open space.

• Conservation development is a flexible design process where unique site features of the parcel are identified and preserved in perpetuity. The “cookie cutter” approach, where building sites are created without regard to the natural characteristics of the land, is eliminated.  Instead, development is directed to where the land is most suitable and where impacts to natural resources and community character can be avoided.

• Conservation development can be used to create an interconnected network of protected open space throughout the community.  This adds value to each open space parcel and helps to create buffers between development, habitat, parks, surface water, wetlands, farms and forests.

• Conservation development is more profitable to developers since homes that are adjacent to permanently protected open space have more value. It also reduces construction costs by reducing road length and land disturbance. This is a win/win scenario for the community, developer, and our environment.

Why is Conservation Development Important to the Reserve?

Clean water is fundamental to the health of Narragansett Bay and the rivers and streams that feed approximately two billion gallons of fresh water to the Bay daily. However, there are some existing water quality pollution sources that will be challenging to clean up. The price tag for restoring the waters that are currently impacted within the watershed of the Bay is already projected to be over a billion dollars.  Therefore it is imperative to prevent any additional water pollution. One of the more difficult problems will be to prevent subsequent non-point pollution sources since these are from many widely scattered sources such as stormwater runoff and failed septic systems. Non-point pollution is directly correlated with growth and land use. Since local cities and towns have primary control over land use, their future growth decisions will have far reaching impacts to the Bay.

The way RI has grown in recent decades is a concern. Land consumption has increased at a rate nine times the population growth resulting in the loss of half our working farms and reducing the average forest parcel size to 10 acres. Due to this sprawling development pattern, water quality contamination is now being found in waters once considered pristine, valuable habitat is being irreversibly destroyed and many ecological systems are now under stress. To make matters worse, the Rhode Island Statewide Planning Program is projecting development will consume an additional 107,000 acres over the next 20 years which could transform three rural towns into suburbia. It is clear that past growth within the Bay watershed has created some severe impacts to water quality and other natural resources. However, future growth doesn’t have to follow past trends. Moreover, it’s not growth itself that is the problem. Instead it is the way that growth has been allowed to occur in the past that needs to be improved. By using the Conservation Development design process, it is possible to accommodate new development while preserving, protecting and restoring the Bay as well as our quality of life. Some of the numerous benefits that Conservation Development provides for the Bay and its watershed include:

• The protection of tributaries
• One of the key objectives of watershed management is to protect the tributary rivers and streams. If the tributaries that supply the Bay with clean water become contaminated, it will not be possible to achieve our water quality goals for the Bay. Approximately 75% of the stream miles that feed the Bay are very small streams that are barely noticeable. Some of these streams are very narrow and can be straddled by a child. However, research shows that their protection is fundamental to maintaining high water quality in the larger streams that they feed as well as the Bay.  Unfortunately, these small streams are the most vulnerable to land use changes and can be easily impaired. Some small streams are not mapped and most unnamed so they are often off the radar screen when developments are planned. Land use regulations need to direct new growth away from surface waters, wetlands and to maintain naturally vegetated buffers that protect water quality and provide valuable habitat.

• The minimization of impervious cover
• Asimpervious surfaces, from roads and parking lots, increase above 10% in awatershed, streams become ecologically stressed, habitat is lost andbiodiversity decreases. To reduce impervious cover, communities mustimplement more compact growth techniques. For example, most ruralcommunities have adopted minimum lot sizes of one acre or greater,densities appropriate for water quality protection. However, a conventionalsubdivision with two-acre lots exceeds a 10% impervious cover. On theother hand, a more compact conservation subdivision with the same numberof homes on smaller lot sizes can reduce impervious cover up to 70% andprotect meaningful open space in perpetuity.

• The retention of precipitation recharge to groundwater
• Asthe amount of impervious cover increases, the natural hydrologic cycle ofland in the watershed is further altered. The amount of rain withheld on the landscape andpenetrating deep into the ground is reduced. Instead, more water simplyruns off into nearby streams, swelling their banks and causing erosionand protective tree canopy loss. Additionally, less groundwater rechargeis available to maintain stream flow volumes, and therefore theirecological functions, during dry months.  This leads to water quality impairments and lesshealthy water entering the Bay. One solution is to infiltrate rainwaterfrom impervious surfaces into the ground using one of many availableinnovative methods and technologies so as to maintain the pre-developmenthydrology as much as possible. Infiltrating also traps many pollutants that are commonly found inroad runoff.

• The mapping of community assets
• Itis important to identify and map all of the important natural resourcesand contiguous open space corridors that should not be developed ordisturbed. Rivers and streams can be used to form continuous corridors ofopen space that can connect to other community open space priorities.Moreover, each community should also identify their important culturaland recreational resources, since these cumulatively represent communitycharacter. This map must be part of the community comprehensive plan tomake it clear where development is not appropriate or where morestringent development standards are warranted.

• The maximization of existing infrastructure
• Everyeffort should be made to direct growth to the areas where towns havealready invested in public water, sewer, transportation and previouslydeveloped sites. This will reduce the development pressure on theundeveloped community assets, and can significantly reduce watershedimpervious cover on a per unit basis. It is also more cost effective inthe long run to provide infrastructure to encourage compact mixed-usegrowth where appropriate than to provide community services in asprawling development pattern.

The RIDEM Sustainable Watersheds Office has been providing technical and financial assistance to help towns adopt Conservation Development ordinances. As towns begin to adopt these ordinances, they need training to help guide them through the process.  The NBRR Coastal Training Program worked with Scott Millar, Chief of RIDEM’s Office of Sustainable Watersheds and lead developer of the Conservation Development Manual and a former planning board member, to develop and deliver the trainings, along with additional coordination assistance from the Grow Smart RI Land-Use Training Collaborative. Close to 200 people attended a total of five trainings over the last year. Not only did the trainings attract town planners and town council and planning and zoning board members, but also wide variety of others including designers and developers, architects, engineers, housing and community development group representatives, conservation commissioners and land trust members.

Workshop participants learn how conservation development fits into the Rhode Island legal framework for subdivision review and how it can benefit communities.  They participate in a hands-on exercise to practice applying conservation development principles to an actual site.  They are also provided with ample discussion time to get their questions answered and receive Conservation Development manuals and binders with many other resources.

If you are interested in attending a Conservation Development workshop or arranging a presentation for particular audience, please contact me.

Online Resources

Additional Information on Conservation Development can be found at these Websites (listed in no certain order):

Dodson Associates

State of Massachusetts

National Association of Counties – Local Tools for Smart Growth (PDF)

NOAA Coastal Services Center

Mississippi – Twice Green (PDF)

Smart Communities Network

Milwaukee River Basin Partnership

Jordan Cove, CT   Annual Report (PDF)

The Conservation Fund – Green Infrastructure (PDF)

NIPC.ORG

Land Choices

ARC's Conservation Subdivisions Tool (PDF)

Georgia DNR - Green Growth Guidelines

Links to Other Websites

Calendar

1/17/08 – Conservation Development Workshop
1/24/08 – Conservation Design DVD Workshop

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