Cherokee County Tribune and Cherokee Ledger-News
March, 2005

Conservation subdivisions encouraged

Dear editor,

In 2003 our county entered into a cooperative planning process with neighboring jurisdictions in the Etowah Watershed. This process—to develop an Etowah Habitat Conservation Plan—is ongoing. Its goals are to develop a basin-wide plan that protects imperiled aquatic species while protecting the economic vitality of our community.

Conservation subdivisions, when planned and developed properly, are an important tool for achieving quality growth. Conservation subdivisions place large percentages of greenspace under permanent protection through conservation easements, thus protecting wildlife habitat and water quality. The conservation subdivision ordinance now does this by requiring developers to use a four-step design process that requires the most environmentally sensitive portions of a project site to be included in the protected area first, and then increasing the area of protected land in the project until a minimum of 40 percent of the site has been protected from development.

In exchange for protecting 40 percent of a project site, developers are allowed to cluster homes closer together so that the same number of homes as in a conventional subdivision can still be built. This allows developers to reach their financial goals for a project while allowing residents of the subdivision and community at large to receive the benefits of protected greenspace.

The proposed ordinance is density neutral. That means developers are allowed to build no more houses in a conservation subdivision than they could build in a traditional subdivision on the same tract. So a conservation subdivision will allow no more people, traffic and associated frustrations than current zoning allows. And, conservation subdivisions will provide water quality, passive recreational and wildlife habitat amenities that traditional subdivisions do not.

There are additional benefits as well. These communities are friendly to pedestrian traffic and promote interaction among neighbors thus creating a tight-knit, safe community. Conservation subdivisions also save taxpayer money by requiring less infrastructure because houses are clustered, streets and sidewalks are shorter and thus installation and maintenance costs are reduced, as are costs for power and sewer lines, for example. Evidence from other jurisdictions indicate that property values in conservation subdivisions are often higher than in traditional developments.

The ordinance that Cherokee County adopts should promote the use of conservation subdivisions throughout the county. Once parameters are set for protecting greenspace and sensitive areas there are two major provisions to an ordinance that can facilitate this. First, allowing conservation subdivisions to be built by-right in all land use zones. Some of Cherokee County’s most sensitive habitat for imperiled aquatic species is in areas currently zoned AG and R-80. The environmental impact of a conservation subdivision is far less harmful than that of a traditional subdivision built at 1 unit per 2 acres as zoning currently allows in these areas. We should eliminate barriers for conservation subdivisions here rather than erect them.

Requiring lot sizes decreases the developer’s flexibility in reaching the 40 greenspace benchmark and makes it more difficult to build a conservation subdivision. If designing the development becomes too difficult many developers will opt for conventional designs, thus reaching their target dollar mark and gobbling up land, but giving the community nothing in return.

In exchange for increased flexibility, the proposed ordinance has several provisions meant to alleviate the concerns of community members. The ordinance requires wide forested buffers between neighboring developments and conservation subdivisions; that houses in conservation subdivisions not be visible from roadways; that greenspace be interspersed among houses; and that greenspace be protected through permanent easements held by responsible third parties.

Ron James
Cherokee County