Conservation by Design

By making straightforward changes to municipal land-use ordinances, Conservation by Design helps communities protect open space and natural resources at essentially no cost and without reducing the rights of landowners and developers to develop their land. (Print version of ConservationTools.org guide)

Comprehensive examination of the Design concept, complete with up-to date references, examples, model ordinances, case studies and more.

Funded by the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) undertook this project in order to promote and enable the use of Conservation Subdivision Design (or CSD), arguably the best reform made to traditional cluster-type zoning to date. This project is intended to elevate the use of this alternative land development technique to one that is commonly accepted and utilized, by serving as an educational tool particularly for Town Planners, Planning Boards and developers.

Conservation subdivision design offers a way to design land development so that some green space is preserved, property values are increased and the same amount of buildings are constructed as would be without it. The conservation subdivision identifies natural and cultural resources that should be preserved and ways to situate houses in ways that both preserve that land and place houses close enough to it so residents can fully enjoy it. The article provides a basic example of how a partially wooded lot could be converted into a conservation subdivision and examples of how this tool has been used to save significant amounts of money on actual development projects.

Brief background of Conservation Subdivision Design (CSD) and list of resources and case studies.

Randall Arendt is a nationally recognized expert on the topic of Conservation by Design and was one the first proponents of this concept. This website has numerous free publications, videos, books, and case studies on multiple topics relating to land-use planning.

Growing Greener: Conservation by Design, a method of creating conservation subdivisions, which preserve open space through the development process.

This model ordinance, consisting of model language for both zoning and subdivision and land development ordinances, provides regulations that can be added to typical, existing ordinances to implement the principles and standards of conservation subdivision design.

Growing Greener is an illustrated workbook that presents a new look at designing subdivisions while preserving green space and creating open space networks. Randall Arendt explains how to design residential developments that maximize land conservation without reducing overall building density, thus avoiding the political and legal problems often associated with "down-zoning.

Article describing how conservation subdivisions are allowing sellers, buyers, and even "not in my back yard" proponents find set-aside plans they support.

This booklet summarizes how municipalities can use the development process to their advantage to protect interconnected networks of open space: natural areas, greenways, trails and recreational lands. Communities can take control of their destinies so that their conservation goals are achieved in a manner fair to all parties concerned. All that is needed are some relatively straightforward amendments to municipal comprehensive plans, zoning ordinances and subdivision ordinances.

A national non-profit helping landowners preserve their land through conservation subdivisions and other techniques. The website showcases examples of conservation subdivisions from across the United States.

Lebanon County Planning Commission zoning ordinance that implements Conservation by Design by requiring certain amounts of open space to be set aside in new developments.

Model municipal ordinance for conservation subdivisions (also known as conservation by design), which set aside a significant amount of open space as part of a development.