MILLBROOK — A half-day educational land management forum for municipal planning board members and the general public held at the Cary Institute on Saturday, March 6, featured smart-growth speakers including an environmentally responsible real estate developer, seasoned town planning board members and respected ecologists.
The key recommendations were to inventory their municipality’s natural resources, mandate sustainable development, use expert advice, involve the public and use the SEQRA (State Environmental Quality Review Act) process as a tool from the pre-application stage.
Listening to the
environment
Michael Klemens, research and policy conservationist at the Cary Institute, began his keynote address, “Planning is not about stopping change. It requires listening and courage. Communities can remake themselves.
“The environment is not a competing interest to be balanced — rather it is the playing field, the foundation upon which all human endeavors compete.�
He stressed that genetic variability creates a more resilient world and that the diversity of ecosystems is society’s natural capital. Fragmentation of landscape, which reduces ecological diversity, is the overriding threat to ecological integrity. It creates non-sustainable patterns of growth, requires continuous infusions of capital including taxpayer dollars, creates vulnerability to stochastic events and compromises human health.
Inappropriate “green fields� developments, whose long-term costs are never calculated or even considered, drive fragmentation of the landscape. Klemens advocates reinvestment and rehabilitation in town and village centers instead of permitting the creeping sprawl of strip malls and houses on two-acre lots.
According to Klemens, there are challenges in making wise environmental, economic and socially acceptable decisions. An informed, engaged citizenry is required at the local level where the majority of decisions are made. Scientific information is often not readily available and a one-size-fits-all policy fails to account for ecological complexity.
“Ecologically friendly planning techniques are not enabled by local regulations. Low impact design should be the rule,� Klemens said.
RAIDER
Klemens uses the word RAIDER as a mnemonic device to remember the six steps to sustainability.
R- Reconnaissance: What is there to really understand?
A - Awareness.
I - Integration of all research.
D - Design.
E - Empowerment – especially the role of the planning board.
R - Redirection.
In applying these steps Klemens stressed that the municipalities should inventory their natural resources and understand what there is to protect. A good rule of thumb is that 75 to 80 percent of open land should be left undeveloped. He is not as concerned about the density per acre as he is unit placement and sprawl.
He stressed the importance of SEQRA. Planning boards should specify in advance the scope of the SEQRA, if possible, and have a dialogue with the applicants. In order to improve the permitting process Klemens recommends replacing complex conditions for approval, favoring cluster and smart development, revising comprehensive plans, training board members and engaging landowners.
Landowner responsibilities
Town planners have asked Klemens what to do when they are accused of elitism and socialism. Klemens suggested referencing John Locke, the father of capitalism, who wrote that landowners have an obligation to use land responsibly; there are rights, but also responsibilities.
Louis Marquet is an experienced builder and developer whose firm, Leyland Alliance LLC, is committed to being a reliable steward of the land. Marquet thinks it makes good business sense and adds value to his projects. He showed slides of his construction team in a wetland catching frogs under Klemens’s direction and building concrete amphibian passages.
He stressed that time should be spent in pre-design, including visiting the site. Spending six months from March to August enables his team to create a conservation plan. Drainage patterns are studied, wetlands identified, edges and buffers created for amphibians.
He laid out his approach for creating a successful and environmentally balanced new neighborhood. Assemble the full planning team, study site conditions and wildlife, hold a workshop with regulators, develop a conservation land use plan and encourage public forums to discuss the new neighborhood. He cautioned everyone to find balance in their decisions and to look at the broad spectrum of issues, including the economics of a proposed project.
Make use of experts
William Flood, chairman of the Amenia Planning Board, and Mary Ann Johnson, consultant, talked about the process of reaching an acceptable plan for the Silo Ridge development in Amenia, beginning with creating a new comprehensive plan and then new zoning regulations.
The planning board was assisted by consultants who worked with the Silo Ridge developers to create a reasonable development that was sensitive to the town’s environmental concerns. Flood observed that Amenia Planning Boards should use expert consultants to help them through the process.
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Dutchess County’s Senior GIS Resource Educator Neil Curri reminded those involved in planning to ask questions, get educated on the issues and get help.
He presented the results of the on-going town of Washington vernal pool study and emphasized the importance of these largely unprotected seasonal bodies of water for controlling flooding, and replenishing the aquifer.
SEQRA
Cynthia Curtis, chair of the North Salem Planning Board in Westchester County, pulled the scientific and the practical together for the audience. She reminded the audience that SEQRA is the best planning tool available.
“Issues should be identified early in the process,� she said. “It’s better for everyone.�
The panel members took questions from the audience after their presentations.
Klemens observed that vernal pools found in agricultural fields, which may not have amphibians, still play an important hydrologic role in preventing flooding, and protecting the aquifer. He said he “Doesn’t mind up zoning to 10 to 20 acres per residence� or cluster housing on large lots to allow 80 percent of the land to remain undeveloped.
But he had no answer to the future of “McMansions� in what he characterized as “the suburban dysfunctional wasteland.� Asked how to avoid the construction of houses on the top of every hill, Klemens suggested restrictions, which have been enacted in Connecticut, limiting building on slopes of greater than 25 degrees.
An educated public
All participants urged wide spread communication and broad public involvement. In North Salem there is a live broadcast of planning meetings and an informative Web site.
Marquet suggested open public forums without planners and technicians present to encourage involvement. “Mix it up� he recommended.,
This half-day event was free to the public and fulfilled the New York State requirement for municipal planning officials to have a minimum four-hour training course in planning. The Cary Institute, Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County, the Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development and the Dutchess County Planning Federation sponsored the forum.
Green changes you can make
•Add native grasses to your yard and create shade plant glades to reduce green grass lawn areas. Use native plant stock from the Hudson Valley.
•Learn to identify invasive plant species such as Siebold’s viburnum and bittersweet and eliminate them before they spread.
•To reduce storm runoff, create rain gardens, use rain barrels to capture water coming off the roof, install a pebble, permeable driveway instead of a hard surface, consider sharing a driveway with your neighbor and remove any curbs from along the driveway.
•Use less salt in the winter.
•Plant a wide buffer of plants around ponds instead of a grassy lawn edge.
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