A. PROTECT OPEN SPACES AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES

Recommendation #2

Protect significant environmental resources in the EP-O district through the use of conservation subdivision design, conservation easements, and the Transfer of Development Rights.

Suggested Actions:

1. Amend the cluster regulations in the Zoning to reflect the recommendations of Greenway Guide A1 on conservation subdivision design . (See note 1 below)

2. Adopt " A Pattern Book for Community Design", with patterns illustrating conservation subdivision design.

3. Adopt a Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) for conservation subdivisions to expedite the review process and encourage this type of development.

4. Define conventional lot-by-lot development as a special permitted use, and include it in a locally-defined Type 1 threshold under SEQR.(see note 2 below)

5. Approach the towns of Milan, Clermont, Livingston, and Rhinebeck to create an inter-municipal land trust overseen by CACs to hold and monitor easements on parcels that are too small for existing land trusts to monitor.

6. Amend the Zoning to permit to permit voluntary TDR, and identify sending and receiving zones.

Notes:

1. This would not preclude development of conventional lot-by-lot subdivisions.

2. This would not prohibit conventional development. Rather, identifying conventional development as a Type 1 action under SEQR would require the submission of a full Environmental Assess informationment Form (EAF), rather than the short form, which would provide the Planning Board and involved agencies with additional information about the property, the proposed development, and its potential impacts.

Recommendations from the Town's Comprehensive Plan:

Use conservation subdivision design and TDR to protect historic and cultural resources, conserve the natural nvironment.preserve prime and statewide significant soils, and focus development toward less sensitive acreage in the Town.

Preserve existing landscape elements, including vegetation and landforms, to integrate new development within its surrounding landscape, and require that significant open space be preserved in every development. Large-scale residential development projects and the use of conventional lot-by-lot subdivision layout hould be discouraged on lands in the RD3, RD5, and LD Districts.

Adopt locally-defined Type 1 thresholds to discourage sprawl. Recommendations from the Town's Open Space Plan: Use the clustering provisions of the Zoning to the fullest permitted extent. Recommendations from Greenway Guides: Rural development should fit into its natural surroundings, rather than be superimposed as a dominant element in the countryside.