LandChoices: Opportunities for Landowners to Preserve Their Land

Land Choices: Changing Development in America

Conservation Subdivision example

Conventional subdivision (left) vs. a conservation subdivision (right) with the same number of homesites (55). Conservation subdivisions preserve *50% to 70% or more of the BUILDABLE land (in addition to unbuildable wetlands, steep slopes and floodplains).

Both subdivisions above are the same size. Which one would you rather live in? Which lots would you pay more for?

Conservation subdivisions allow the same number of homesites as conventional subdivision development and the property is worth more! Which would you rather have in your community?

LandChoices' Supersize My Backyard^TM campaign is educating planners and developers to correct misconceptions and providing communities with information and LandChoices' Approved Conservation Subdivision Ordinance to update and revise outdated ordinances to make it easy for developers to build conservation subdivisions.

Why aren't we seeing more conservation subdivisions in communities?
Conservation subdivisions are a win-win for developers, landowners, towns, wildlife and homebuyers, but developers are not allowed to build them in many parts of the country. Outdated and inflexible zoning and subdivision codes make it difficult, if not impossible, for developers to build a conservation subdivision. In most cases, developers often settle for tried-and-true conventional "cookie cutter" subdivision designs rather than navigate a long, difficult, and expensive approval process for a non-traditional subdivision.

In many cases, planning officials and developers are simply not aware of conservation subdivisions. Conservation subdivisions are often misunderstood by planners and developers, being mistaken for "clustering", an outdated design style that failed miserably in the quantity and quaility of land preserved.

*In urban, sewered, high density areas zoned at 2-3-4 units per acre, preserving 40% open space, in addition to the unbuildable wetlands, floodplains, and steep slopes, is the norm. In rural, suburban edge areas at densities of 5 and 10 acres per dwelling, where most of America's new subdivisions are being and will be built, easily 70% (or more) of the land can be preserved.

Images courtesy Randall Arendt, "Conservation Design for Subdivisions", Island Press, 1996