As new patterns of suburban and exurban development emerge, so too must the solutions be different from those that have worked in the past. Traditional land conservation and regulatory approaches - such as large lot zoning or traditional clusters - will not succeed in taming exurban growth or suburban sprawl. Instead, a new generation of innovative and comprehensive planning and land preservation initiatives will be needed. This new planning and regulatory system must rise above the development versus conservation confrontations of the past.
This new approach must identify appropriate, environmentally suitable locations for needed development and provide infrastructure to service it. At the same time, this approach must limit development in areas containing important environmental resources and hold development that does occur in these places to stringent environmental performance standards. The ultimate goal of this new approach must be to create patterns of development that reinforce, rather than destroy, the character of communities.
While this handbook has been developed for Connecticut communities, many of the guidelines presented here can also be applied to other parts of the Tri-State Metropolitan Region.
Produced With
- Connecticut Land Use Coalition
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