Developers Eye Eco-Friendly Subdivisions (Market Analysis)

With a recent “World Water Forum” in Mexico along with a severe drought throughout this area, the subject of water continues to be an important topic of discussion. It might be a good time to look at what people in Northwest Arkansas are doing to make sure we all have an ample, clean supply of this very valuable resource.

With a casual survey, we can list just a few of the many water-providing and protection related activities in the Northwest Arkansas region. These include:

Creation of the Illinois River Watershed Partnership.

Ongoing activities by several local watershed groups.

Continuing activity by the Arkansas Stream Team program in the region.

Implementation of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality National Pollution Elimination Discharge System permitting program for storm water management plans for any land clearing of one acre or more.

Thirteen local cities and our two counties proceed into their third year of a five-year EPA Phase II storm water management program.

Public education and outreach provided by the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension as part of the EPA Phase II storm water program and other efforts such as a recent “on-site sewage systems” session presented to professionals in real estate.

The planning of a major storm water management conference for EPA Region 6 (covering five states) to take place in Northwest Arkansas in June 2007.

Ongoing programs of stream bank stabilization through the Farm Service Agency’s Continuous Conservation Reserve Program.

An ongoing program of septic system permitting by the county health departments.

The major $84.2 million expansion of the Beaver Water facilities.

The planned planting of 16,000 trees as part of a partnership between Beaver Water District and Audubon Arkansas.

An ongoing relationship with Beaver Water District and the University of Arkansas’ civil engineering department and the Arkansas Water Resources Center involving the study of nutrient flows into Beaver Reservoir.

Ongoing water monitoring conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (you can find real-time stream flow data on the Internet at http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ar/nwis/rt).

The ongoing development of a $180 million wastewater treatment plant in Fayetteville and an estimated $40 million plant by the Northwest Arkansas Conservation Authority.

Ongoing work in many communities on water line development.

This list, by no means complete, is an indication of some of the many efforts Northwest Arkansas continues to carry out to help maintain clean water resources.

Storm Water

One more item, the Arkansas Urban Forestry Council is holding its 15th Annual Urban Forestry Conference with the topic “Trees: the Oldest New Thing in Storm Water Management” April 18-20 in Fayetteville.

We can be sure that this conference will remind us how trees play an important roll in storm water management.

In September 2002, the American Forests, an organization devoted to tree conservation, published the findings of their urban ecosystems analysis of Northwest Arkansas. The analysis used Geographic Information Systems technology to assess tree cover change trends from 1985 to the year 2000.

The study found that, overall, in Washington and Benton counties, the change in the region’s tree cover over 15 years was less than 1 percent. However, the city of Fayetteville experienced a significant 18 percent decline in heavy tree canopy during the same time period. We can expect this trend to continue in the two counties as cities annex and expand the urbanized area.

According to the study’s findings, trees slow storm water runoff, reducing the amount of peak flow and storage volume that cities must build and maintain.

In the year 2000, Fayetteville’s urban forest provided storm water containment for almost 50 million cubic feet of water at a value of $92 million. In other words, without the trees, the city would need to build storm water retention ponds and other engineered systems costing $92 million to intercept this runoff.

This figure doesn’t include the other benefits of ground water recharge, better air quality, lower air-conditioning bills, carbon sequestration and natural beauty that urban forests provide.

It should be pointed out why storm water runoff is an important concern. According to the Environmental Protection Agency:

Storm water can pick up debris, chemicals, dirt, and other pollutants and flow into a storm sewer system or directly to a lake, stream, river, wetland or coastal water. Anything that enters a storm sewer system is discharged untreated into the water bodies we use for swimming, fishing and providing drinking water.

So if we want to keep our drinking water clean, we must prevent pollutants such as oil, other chemicals and construction silt from entering our storm sewer systems using best management practices.

Conservation Design

In the area of city planning, the many communities around the country are turning to an increasingly popular method of protecting urban forests and storm water known as conservation subdivision design (CSD).

Developers, consumers, and environmentalists alike are finding CSD an appealing alternative to the conventional or “cookie-cutter” subdivision design. Conservation subdivision design offers a flexible, market-oriented approach to local environmental protection worthy of greater awareness.

In conventional design, the developable land within a tract is divided into roads and house lots, typically subject to minimum lot size requirements. Most of the land is built upon, apportioned to individual lots as yards or surfaced for roads.

In contrast, CSD, as implemented in some Northwest Arkansas cities like Goshen, clusters development within a given parcel. With CSD, developers are allowed to build houses on smaller lots if they leave a portion of the land undisturbed as protected open space.

For example, if a “conventional” residential zoning ordinance requires a minimum lot size of one acre, a 50-acre parcel could yield roughly 50 houses. In contrast, a CSD-friendly zoning ordinance might allow a developer to build the same 50 houses on one-half acre lots if the other half of the land is left undeveloped.

Compared to conventional subdivision design, CSD offers several benefits including:

Full development potential of a parcel while minimizing environmental impacts and protecting desirable open spaces.

Developed portion of the parcel is concentrated on those areas most suitable for development.

Undeveloped portion of a conservation subdivision can include such ecologically or culturally-rich areas as forest land, agricultural land/buildings, historical or archeological resources, riparian zones (vegetated waterway buffers), wetlands, wildlife habitat and scenic viewsheds.

Typically, the open space is permanently protected with a conservation easement managed through a homeowners association, land trust or a local government agency.

Sometimes these open space preserves can be leased to farmers for small-scale agricultural production or used for community gardens.

From the developer’s perspective, CSD offers a reduction of development expenses since there are fewer trees to clear, less land to grade, and less road, water and sewer infrastructure needs. Furthermore, the CSD meets a growing consumer market for homes in natural settings with less property to maintain. Even with smaller lots, housing prices and resale values in conservation subdivisions compare favorably to those in conventional subdivisions.

Consumers have shown a willingness to pay a premium for the environmental amenities and quality of life that conservation subdivisions offer.

Some compare the CSD to a golf course community development where the golf course is replace with natural open space. Many people would happily trade lot size for proximity to natural scenery.

Very important to the community-at-large, a CSD can help provide several local benefits including:

Helping to prevent the loss of urban forests, farmland and community character.

Reducing the need of governments to purchase and maintain new tracts of public land.

Providing area for community-wide trail and open-space networks.

Maintaining wildlife habitat.

Providing ecological and water filtration functions of wetlands and riparian areas.

Reducing storm water runoff and flooding.

Conservation subdivision design, if properly incorporated into city plans and ordinances, can meet the needs of developers, consumers and environmentalists. While CSD may not be appropriate in all development locations, it should be seen as an important growth management tool that cities should consider as a way to protect and maintain open space, urban forests and, very importantly, clean water resources.

(Paul Justus is a regional planner with the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission.)