Democrats seek to offer ‘conservation’ alternative
By: Steve Rauscher
MONTGOMERY The conservation design ordinance that the Township Committee re-introduced Thursday night has not changed much since the committee postponed voting on it last September.
But the committee has.
At that time, the Republican-dominated committee resolved not to vote on the ordinance, sponsored by Township Committeewoman Louise Wilson, which would allow developers to cluster homes on smaller lots in exchange for preserving surrounding open space. Ms. Wilson has since become mayor after a Democratic sweep of November’s elections, and stands a much better chance this month of getting the ordinance through.
"I hope that it’s a unanimous vote," Mayor Wilson said. "But even if it isn’t, I think it’s important that we offer this as an option."
Conservation design is intended to preserve the maximum amount of contiguous open space within a development tract. Most of the land within the township that is still eligible for development lies within areas zoned for 5-acre and 10-acre minimum lot sizes. That means each home must sit on a lot no smaller than five or 10 acres, depending on the zoning.
According to conservation design, a developer who plans on building more than a few houses can place the houses closer together on smaller lots in exchange for leaving the leftover land untouched. If a developer wanted to build five houses on 50 acres of woods, for example, it could employ conservation design to put those five houses on 1.25-acre lots, or on 5-acre lots but with the homes placed closer together. The objective is to reduce the amount of land that is affected by new development. By placing the houses closer together or on smaller lots, developers build less road or cut down fewer trees.
The biggest objection officials have had to conservation design is its potential impact on the township’s water supply. In December, the Township Committee voted to downzone most of the southwestern section of the township from 2- and 3-acre minimum lot sizes to 5- and 10-acre minimums. The township enacted the zoning changes because the areas in question are all served by well and septic systems rather than sewers. Because of the high clay content of the soil, nitrates leeched from septic tanks could build up in harmful concentrations in the local water supply if those septic systems were placed too close to one another. By expanding the minimum lot size, the township reduced the likelihood of that happening.
Critics charge that conservation design runs afoul of this goal by allowing for the placement of homes within 1¼ acres of each other.
"We say we have to downzone because of the water quality and adequate septic dilution and then we want to put 10 houses on 5 acres," Township Committeewoman Sondra Moylan said. "Maybe I’m missing something, but that doesn’t sound right."
When the ordinance was first introduced last year, members of the township Board of Health failed to recommend its adoption because of the nitrate dilution issues. The board is expected to re-examine the ordinance at its meeting Wednesday.
Mayor Wilson said that such arguments are valid but don’t mean that the committee should fail to adopt the ordinance.
"The Board of Health will retain its authority to reject any single plan," she said. "This will be offered when and if it is accepted by the Planning Board and the Board of Health. It’s not mandatory. The bottom line is, where we find or suspect that dilution won’t be achieved, conservation design won’t be feasible."
Committeeman Don Matthews seemed reassured when Mayor Wilson said as much during Thursday night’s Township Committee meeting.
"That makes me feel a lot better about it," he said.
Other criticisms of conservation design include the perception that there are relatively few properties in the township where it could be employed, and that developers would be loath to employ it because of the additional engineering costs that could be incurred with no guarantee that the design would be accepted because of nitrate dilution concerns.
"That’s a tired argument," Mayor Wilson said. "There aren’t parcels where you have 200 acres and you’re trying to build 40 houses, but there are plenty of 30-, 40- and 50-acre parcels. These are the properties where you can see if this is an option."
And those developers who might not volunteer to plan according to conservation design can be persuaded, Mayor Wilson insisted.
"If the township makes it clear that it would very much like to see this happen, you bet they’ll want to do it," she said. "Developers want to do what the towns want, because they don’t want to keep coming back (to Planning Board and zoning board meetings) night after night. It gets expensive."
The committee will hold a public hearing on the adoption of the ordinance May 15, pending the Board of Health’s issuing a recommendation.