by Judy Frank
posted May 16, 2007
What's a developer to do when the land where he or she wants to put a subdivision is dotted with steep slopes, wetlands, wooded areas and other important natural features?
Treat them as assets, and incorporate them into open spaces that can be used by everybody who eventually buys a house there, an internationally recognized land-use planner said Tuesday in Chattanooga.
The first step in planning a development should be deciding which areas should be left as conservation zones, Randall Arendt told the developers, local officials, planners and community activists who gathered Tuesday at Chattanooga Theatre Center.
'Drawing in lot lines should be the last step,' he said.
'Further,' he said, 'the public should be brought into the planning process for new developments, from the get-go.'
It's too late to hold a public hearing after developers and planners have already held a series of meetings and decided what should be done, he said.
Mr. Arendt -- who crisscrosses the nation preaching the benefits of allowing smaller lot sizes in subdivisions to make room for more open spaces, said it's important that developments include common areas featuring walking trails, picnic areas and other amenities.
Long before a preliminary plan for a subdivision is prepared, he explained, a landscape architect should be tasked with preparing a sketch or concept plan that takes into account the natural, cultural and historical resources of the area in which they are located.
For example, he said, one development in Virginia that he helped plan was build on property where Civil War soldiers had fought. Planners' decision to preserve Civil War-related features and design open areas around them paid off financially, he said, since Civil War buffs liked the idea of living nearby.
'And since the development adjoins a Civil War battlefield, there are a lot of Civil War buffs around,' he said.
Everyone who participates in the planning of a development, including planning commission members and other regulators, should be required to go out and physically walk the land, so that they have actually seen the natural springs, inviting woodlands, historic stone walls and/or other features that should be taken into consideration, Mr. Arendt stressed.
'The site walk is really important,' he said. 'If you don't go out and walk the land, then you don't get a vote. You don't belong on the planning commission.'
In many cases, the zoning laws that are currently on the books need to be rewritten to make conservation design a permitted use.
Antiquated zoning requirements often force developers to create communities that contain nothing more than lots, houses and streets. That needs to be changed to allow clusters of housing and a sizable amount of open space that can be enjoyed by everybody who eventually lives there.
'Never blame developers,' he said. 'They're just reading the book . . . . We need to change the book.'
Another problem, he said, is that current zoning requirements often discourage attempts to find creative solutions to potential problems.
For example, Mr. Arendt said, in some developments centered around lakes, the only people who have access to the lake are the few whose property actually adjoins it.
Rethinking the process and designing such developments so that the lake is surrounded by open areas where all residents can walk would make financial as well as environmental sense, he said, because people will pay more to live where they have access to open space.
The same thing goes for woodlands, he said.
'Money really does grow on trees,' he said.
'There's more value in a subdivision if we don't slaughter the trees (because) people love living in a park. I don't know why that hasn't dawned on developers.'
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