This is a short video we created to promote natural neighborhoods, our new alternate name for “conservation subdivisions“. Please share this video by clicking on the “Share/Save” button below to help spread the word. Image courtesy Randall Arendt, Conservation Design for Subdivisions, Island Press, 1996. Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com. //
This is a terrific overview of open space development, known also as “conservation subdivision” or “conservation development”. Open Space Residential Development: Four Case Studies (PDF) is a must read if you want to learn more about open space developments. The study offers a profile, financing, comparison site plans, photos, home value and appreciation, by laws, open [...]
Check out this conservation design poster from the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC). The top site plan is of a 365 acre parcel developed using conventional development, and the bottom site plan is the same parcel developed using conservation design. Quite a difference! //
At LandChoices we are always on the lookout for tools that help promote conservation design for subdivisions to preserve clean water, working farmland, wildlife and natural areas on lands where development is inevitable. Our friends at 10,000 Friends of Minnesota have created a really neat and useful Conservation Design Scorecard (PDF). From the start, the Scorecard [...]
The Louisville Metro Planning Commission and Louisville Metro Council offer information about and list the advantages of conservation subdivisions. In their fact sheet, ”The Economic Benefits of Conservation Subdivisions” (PDF), under the category “Reduced Infrastructure”, they state, “Reduced street costs are sometimes another benefit. In Pleasant View TN, Randall Arendt recently redesigned an 86-lot subdivision in [...]
The benefits of conservation design for subdivisions, also known as “conservation subdivision design”, are many. Conservation subdivisions offer the following benefits: Conservation subdivisions preserve *50% to 70% or more of the buildable land. Conservation subdivisions preserve a much higher quality and percentage of land than “clustering“. Protect clean water in lakes and rivers by eliminating [...]
