CONSERVATION SUBDIVISIONS
GOOD FOR THE LAND, GOOD FOR THE POCKETBOOK
By Steve Wright
Randall Arendt, a member of LandChoices’ Advisory Group, is one of the nation's foremost authorities on Conservation Subdivision design – one might even call him the father of the movement to bring development to a plot of land while perpetually preserving at least half of its rural/agricultural nature.
“One developer in Texas who hired me to redesign his 60-acre subdivision told me that his site grading costs plummeted from $300,000 to $50,000 as a result of my re-design,“ Arendt said via email interview while overseas.
“In Tennessee, my re-design saved one developer approximately $212,000 in street construction costs, while at the same time introducing significantly more quality open space into the layout. Another design is credited by an Indiana developer as having added $20,000 to $25,000 of value to each of his 40 lots.”
Arendt, a landscape planner, site designer and author of more than 20 smart land use publications, has worked for clients in 21 states – from Florida to Texas to the South and the Midwest, where Conservation Design has become a very popular way of accommodating housing growth while conserving rolling farm land and crucial wetlands.
TOMORROW: Town of Cary
Wright frequently writes about smart growth and sustainable communities. He and his wife live in a restored historic home in the heart of Miami’s Little Havana. Contact him at: stevewright64@yahoo.com
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