West Nile Virus have been reported
in the county. Residents endure the second worst
commute in the nation.
We have the highest
suicide rate in Virginia.
We are struggling
to preserve the quality of life that attracted
tourists, corporations and home buyers to Loudoun
County in the first place—the same quality of
life that is threatened by their influx. The
catch phrase “smart growth” aims at the
solution but gives little indication of what means to
apply toward that end. A clear approach is found
in conservation design. By applying a
conservation design template to all new development in
the county, we can have both the inevitable development
and preservation of the environment. Of course,
this new standard is not only different from our
traditional approach, it is exactly opposite to the
traditional approach.
WHAT IS CONSERVATION DESIGN?
What is
conservation design? It is the reordering of the
design sequence for either residential or commercial
development, starting with the environmental features
of the site to be conserved, and ending with the
building sites and roads, rather than the other way
around. The traditional approach to development
has been to overlay a site with a grid of the maximum
number of lots possible, then lay out the roadways to
reach all most efficiently. Any environmental
features left over have been conserved!
Conservation design
assumes that the features most worthy of being
conserved are in fact conserved as the priority.
The process starts with investigation of the
site’s environmental features like streams,
substantial tree cover, steep slopes, and historic
elements. To the extent that is practical, these
become the places not to build. The houses are
sited, or “set back” from the conservation
features rather than the as yet imaginary roads,
preferably in a cluster configuration. Finally,
the roads are snaked through the site, avoiding
conserved areas to the extent possible. A feature
of conservation design is smaller lots, and roads of
smaller dimension and radius. The loss of overall
space to the open space of conservation design is
offset by the smaller lots and tighter roads, so the
net effect may be
