Smart Design Combats Unnecessary Environmental Costs

Student describing her work to a local planning board member

Local governments spend millions fixing stream erosion, reconstructing wetlands, repairing roads and bridges damaged by floods and replanting streambanks. Often new development initiatives are not designed to avoid many of those environmental costs.

Through the years, local subdivision and zoning laws have been encouraging maintaining existing vegetation, avoiding altering natural drainage patterns, constructing roads in conformance with the existing topography, and the like. But many subdivision layouts are still done in cookie cutter fashion with little regard to the lay of the land and long-term environmental impacts, although they meet the letter of the law.

In 1999, using water quality funding through Section 604(b) of the federal Clean Water Act, Southern Tier Central(STC) Regional Planning and Development Board, an Economic Development Administration funded district in Painted Post, New York, began to answer these questions. The basic assumptions of STC’s program:

• Landowners need to UNDERSTAND the benefits of good design.
• Landowners need to SEE good layouts.
• Landowners need to HEAR from their neighbors, not paid government employees, that good design WORKS.

At their Local Government Conferences during the spring of 1999 and 2000, STC presented workshops describing and illustrating the concepts of environmentally sound subdivisions using case studies to local government, large landowners, developers, county water quality coordinating committee members and design engineers.

The most exciting aspect of the program is the Rural Design Clinic. STC sought out large landowners of property ripe for development to work with a landscape architecture class at Cornell University to develop showcase concept designs which result in water quality, riparian and natural resource protection as well as good economic return to the landowner. Three landowners stepped forward with three markedly different properties: a steep forested hillside outside of the city of Corning, more than 100 acres of former farmland with a 360 degree view, and a parcel overlooking Keuka Lake. After establishing the housing density allowed by zoning laws, students followed the following principles to develop good housing layouts for these properties:

• Identify areas of environmental constraints (steep slopes over 15 percent, waterways and streamside buffers, floodplains, poor soils, wetlands) and areas of significance to be retained (hedgerows, walls/fences, large trees, good views) and exclude them from development. Identify open spaces and connecting routes for pathways and wildlife habitat.
• Locate good housing sites: those with views buffered by landscaping or topography so that they are screened from view, on the better soils. Mix densities to create new hamlets, “clustered” groupings and/or secluded individual homes.
• Locate the roads meeting grade requirements while respecting natural features.
• Draw the lot lines. Note easements or common property to protect open space/recreation areas.

These creative concepts were shared with the landowners, local officials and the public at a workshop on December 6 and again at the April 5 STC Local Government Conference. Property owners were pleased with the results and encouraged others to think along these lines.

A workbook highlighting the best designs is being prepared and will be available at the STC website (www.stcrpdb.dst.ny.us) at the end of June 2001. Next steps include conducting Rural Design Clinics in Chemung and Schuyler Counties to add more examples from around the region before the hard copy workbook is printed next year.

Editor’s Note: This article was written by Jennifer Fais, Principal Planner and Coordinator of the Rural Design Clinic at STC. Contact her at (607) 962-5092 or jfais@stny.rr.com.

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