Land Use Planning Workshop: Conservation Subdivision Design Featuring Randall Arendt

For land use on Long Island, the balance of open space preservation and economic growth is critical. With that in mind, NSLA invited top land use planner, Randall Arendt, to conduct a seminar focusing on conservation subdivision design. On May 26th, 135 land use decision makers gathered at the Hoffman Center in Muttontown for a 5 hour workshop to learn conservation design and the supporting regulatory framework needed by villages and towns. Attendees included Village Mayors, Trustees, Town and County Planning Board Members, Builders, Architects, Landscape Architects, Engineers, and Realtors.

Mr. Arendt’s message was clear: in order to achieve a community’s goal for “growing greener,” model ordinances must be adopted. In addition to requiring a process in which the conservation areas of a site are determined first, zoning ordinances must contain, at a minimum, a requirement that protected lands in conservation subdivisions are comprised of at least 50% of the buildable ground whenever the underlying density is one unit per acre or lower.

Mr. Arendt’s workshop offered valuable “greener” land use planning tools and an enlightened vision for decision makers to move forward with conservation objectives for their own communities. NSLA is deeply grateful to Mr.Arendt for sharing his wisdom, to all the workshop attendees for their time and attention, and to fellow co-sponsors for the program, The Nature Conservancy, Friends of the Bay, Hoffman Center and Nassau Land Trust