§ 1001. Purpose and intent.

Within the Planned Development District (PD) of the Land Use Regulation of White County, conservation subdivision is a tool for land use development. It is a subdivision that concentrates buildings in specific areas on the development site to allow the remaining land to be used for common open space. The purpose of a conservation subdivision is to protect farmland and natural resources. This method of design normally allows the maximum number of dwelling units permitted under the current subdivision regulations.

In conventional subdivisions, all the land is divided into residential lots and streets, with the only open space typically being un-buildable land such as wetlands, steep slopes, floodplains, and storm water management areas. In conservation subdivisions, the neighborhoods are more compact, with smaller lots. A higher percentage of the site is preserved as open space.

Public concern has grown over the loss of open space and rural character that seems to accompany development. One of the main purposes for adopting conservation subdivision design is to preserve open space.

This article is intended to provide for residential subdivisions that are designed based first and foremost on the preservation of open space, but that accommodate the full extent of development that would otherwise be legally possible under conventional subdivision designs, and that:

a.

Minimize the environmental and visual impacts of new development on critical resources and historically, archeologically, and culturally significant sites and structures.

b.

Contribute to an interconnected network of permanent open space in the community and provide for undivided or relatively undivided open spaces within new developments.

c.

Create a greater diversity of living environments than is possible with conventional residential subdivision developments.

d.

Foster informal social interaction among neighborhood residents in common open spaces.

e.

Reduce the demand on public expenditures for open space, parkland, play fields, and other areas for active and passive recreation.

f.

Encourage compact patterns that reduce capital costs by requiring less linear footage distances of roads and utilities than conventional subdivision development.

g.

Offer greater opportunities to implement environmentally sensitive sewage treatment and disposal systems.

h.

Encourage pedestrian/bicycle traffic throughout the development whenever possible.

i.

Discourage non-local traffic through thoughtful road design.

j.

Encourage vegetative buffers.

Conventional Subdivision

Open Space Conservation Subdivision

(Res. No. 2017-02, 1-9-17)