Preservation development is a model of

real-estate development Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to others. ...

that addresses

farmland preservation Farmland preservation is a joint effort by non-governmental organizations and local governments to set aside and protect examples of a region's farmland for the use, education, and enjoyment of future generations. They are operated mostly at state a ...

. It shares many attributes with conservation development, with the addition of strategies for maintaining and operating productive

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

and

silviculture Silviculture is the practice of controlling the growth, composition/structure, and quality of forests to meet values and needs, specifically timber production. The name comes from the Latin ('forest') and ('growing'). The study of forests and wo ...

, often in

perpetuity A perpetuity is an annuity that has no end, or a stream of cash payments that continues forever. There are few actual perpetuities in existence. For example, the United Kingdom (UK) government issued them in the past; these were known as conso ...

. A preservation development is a

planned community A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...

that allows limited, carefully designed development (typically housing) on a working farm, while placing the majority of productive land under a system of

easement An easement is a nonpossessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. It is "best typified in the right of way which one landowner, A, may enjoy over the land of another, B". An easement is a propert ...

s and

community governance Community governance consist of a system of laws, norms, rules, policies and practices mentioned in the constitution or charter that dictate the procedure to manage and oversee the affairs of any international body, line & staff agency, attached ...

to ensure a continuity of farming and environmental stewardship.

Goals

Preservation development is not a formal planning approach, but an example of goal-oriented environmental planning. Particular characteristics of the land, local market and local agricultural norms influence the tools to be deployed in each case. The successful project should, however, aim to meet several goals: # 80% or more of the target parcel's agricultural productivity should be retained. # Development should take a form that does not interfere with productive land uses. # Legal constructions should make land protections permanent, but flexible. # Community Governance and management structures should be created to ensure stewardship of the community. # The community should advance public education on the value of rural lands.

Origins

Preservation development was developed in the 1980s in response to rapid farmland loss due to

urban sprawl Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city." Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growt ...

around Boston. Robert Baldwin, Sr. devised the system of interlocking "farmbelt" and "greenbelt" easements. The system, and associated design and community governance tools, was refined through the 1990s on projects around New England. In 2005, this model was expanded into the Southeast, beginning with the 2,300 acre (931 ha) Bundoran Farm, in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Relationship to other conservation methods

In the United States, most land is conserved by a combination of charitable giving and tax incentives. Parcels with ecological, historic or scenic value may be voluntarily placed under

conservation easement In the United States, a conservation easement (also called conservation covenant, conservation restriction or conservation servitude) is a power invested in a qualified private land conservation organization (often called a "land trust") or gover ...

, which prohibits or significantly limits future development of the land. The landowner may be directly compensated for the easement (Purchase of Development Rights), or the future-development rights may be considered a donation, subject to tax credits offsetting income taxes due. In some US states, the tax credits may be sold to generate income from the transaction. In a few localities, future-development rights may be sold or traded ( Transferable development rights), and redeployed in urbanizing areas. Preservation development is a market-based approach, and does not rely on taxpayer funding or charitable donation. The landowner sells the land. Development and land protections are enacted simultaneously, and the resulting subdivided parcels are sold to individuals. The value of each parcel is increased by adjacency and access to the conserved land, which allows development density significantly below that allowed by

zoning Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...

Sustainable development

Preservation development is a type of sustainable development wherein the natural carrying capacity of land is considered not only in terms of development but also in agricultural capacity and ecological service. Rather than maximizing development, developers seek a

Triple Bottom Line The triple bottom line (or otherwise noted as TBL or 3BL) is an accounting framework with three parts: social, environmental (or ecological) and economic. Some organizations have adopted the TBL framework to evaluate their performance in a broade ...

(TBL) balance between social, environmental and economic factors.Nell Porter Brown, "Keeping it Green", '' Harvard Magazine'' Nov/Dec 2008, v. 111-2, p. 24.

Smart growth

New Urbanism New Urbanism is an urban design movement which promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually i ...

and

smart growth Smart growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl. It also advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood sc ...

promote density, interconnectivity and access to transit as desirable goals of urban planning. Both approaches privilege development in infill locations and brownfields. Preservation Development's focus on greenfield sites with active agriculture and forestry places has placed it outside the mainstream of either movement. Since 2001, however, New Urbanist planners Duany / Plater-Zyberk have promoted a "transect" zoning approach, recognizing the need to extend Smart Growth approaches to highly urbanized and rural locations. These new codes address development pressure in exurban locations, as does Preservation Development. In this context, Preservation Development is an appropriate settlement pattern for the two or three lowest-density landscape types on the transect, and insufficiently dense for the other categories. Some communities with zoning influenced by tenets of Smart Growth have embraced preservation development as an additional tool for managing exurban growth.

References

External links

Bundoran Farm

Congress for New Urbanism
{{Land-use planning, selected=branches Sustainable agriculture