Planning for Greener Development: Conservation Development and Landon Bay East

This paper has been abbreviated from the original submission. This paper explores some of the impacts associated with current patterns of suburban and rural residential development, how we arrived at this point, and some initiatives that are being put forward to address our current residential land use patterns. In particular, conservation development (design) is examined in detail. Its principles are founded on the work of Ian McHarg's "design with nature"philosophy, whereby the landscape and natural features form the framework for where and what we build. This is in contrast with the more common method of residential development, an approach based more on Le Corbusier's ideals of razing a site to create a "clean slate"from which to work and ...take control and decide in what direction the forthcoming battle is to be waged"(Le Courbusier, 1996: 369). Landon Bay East, a residential development located in Eastern Ontario, east of Kingston, is used as a case study to further explore conservation development in an implemented form. Landon Bay East is a 160-acre subdivision that contains a 65-acre nature preserve within an area identified as an Area of Natural and Scientific Interest by the province and, more recently, as an International Biosphere Reserve (one of twelve in Canada) designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It is examined both as an example of conservation development and in the larger context of "sustainable development". The broad areas of process and outcome examined in this development are: physical form and environment; community and social context; the planning process, and; economic and marketing issues.

Following the case study, there is an overview of some of the issues that arose during the detailed investigation of conservation development and Landon Bay East. This section not only points out barriers but also proposes suggestions for addressing them. The suggestions are based on the need for changes in multiple areas including: regulation reform and accessibility to new options; communal sewage; coordination of public and nongovernmental resources; developer reform; public education and stewardship; land trusts and conservation easements, and; monitoring programs. The paper concludes that conservation development may offer a viable solution to addressing problems inherent in our current patterns of residential land use development, but must be used in conjunction with other tools. The framework for a comprehensive program in Ontario is not yet present and barriers will need to be addressed before this type of development can proceed on more than an individual site basis.