Open Space Preservation Rules

Slated For P&Z Hearing

By Andrew Gorosko

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) will air its latest regulatory proposal intended to maximize the amount of open space land preserved in certain new single-family residential subdivisions at a public hearing scheduled for next week.

The P&Z session is slated for 7:30 pm Thursday, June 17, at the town land use office at Canaan House at Fairfield Hills.

P&Z members have been formulating their proposal for more than a year. They opted to modify a previous version of the open space rule proposal following a March public hearing at which the proposed rules drew fire from developers and their agents for a variety of reasons.

The “open space conservation subdivision” (OSCS) regulations are designed to conserve the remaining undeveloped landscape in a town that formerly was largely agricultural.

The local landscape continues to be consumed by conventional single-family residential subdivision development. During the past 20 years, approximately 14,000 acres of vacant land, representing 36 percent of the town’s total land area, were developed as residential subdivisions.

The community character of areas that were developed changed from “rural” to “suburban,” and the natural landscape and ecosystems of those areas significantly changed due to the grading of 2,700 house lots and the construction of miles of subdivision roads and stormwater drainage facilities.

The P&Z’s underlying goal for OSCS development is preserving up to 50 percent of a site as protected, preferably contiguous, open space land.

The OSCS development approach would allow large amounts of open space to be preserved at no cost to the town. The amount of land preserved would represent more acreage than the town likely would have the financial means to acquire.

OSCS development would “cluster” single-family houses on relatively small building lots on a development site to allow a relatively larger amount of undeveloped open space to be preserved on that site. The clustering of buildings is intended to preserve the unique natural features of a site.

The proposed OSCS regulations cover both the zoning regulations and the planning regulations. OCSC development would require a “special exception” to the zoning regulations, as well as a subdivision approval under the planning regulations.

Copies of the 20-page proposal are available for review at the town land use office.

 Design Planning

Under the P&Z’s current OSCS proposal, a developer would determine whether to pursue an OSCS design for a given subdivision, rather than a conventional design.

In the proposed OSCS rules that were submitted to the March public hearing, developers would have been required to submit conceptual designs for both OSCS subdivisions and for conventional subdivisions for a given piece of property. Based on those designs, the P&Z would have then decided which development approach should be used for that property. Detailed design planning would then have been formulated by the developer for the P&Z’s choice.

The P&Z’s power to select the design approach for a given property was a major criticism leveled by developers at the March hearing. The developers had questioned the legality of providing the P&Z with that power. The P&Z thus made pursuing an OSCS project the option of a developer.

P&Z members have been considering providing the developer of an OSCS project with a flat seven percent “density bonus,” which would allow the subdivision to have seven percent more dwelling units than its underlying zoning designation would otherwise allow.

P&Z members now, however, are considering some alternate approach to offering such a flat density bonus, said Community Development Director Elizabeth Stocker. The agency is considering modifying the ratio of rear building lots that would be allowed in such development, she said.

Under such a plan, instead of requiring two frontage lots for each rear lot in a subdivision, or a 2-to-1 ratio, the P&Z might allow a 1-to-1 ratio of one frontage lot to one rear lot. Such a development design might involve the use of shared driveways.

In a memorandum to the P&Z, Ms Stocker provides a series of proposals that P&Z members might incorporate into their OSCS rules.

Ms Stocker suggests that it be explicitly stated in the regulations that at least one-third of a development site be preserved as open space, with the underlying goal of 50 percent open space preservation.

Such open space would be preserved for the purposes of wildlife habitat, natural resource conservation, historic and archaeological preservation, agriculture, horticulture, forestry, and recreation.

The P&Z recently increased the minimum percentage of open space to be preserved in a subdivision from 10 percent of the acreage to 15 percent, representing a 50 percent increase in the fraction of the land on a site that is turned over to the town, or to a designated land trust.