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Home My WebLink About[06] Conservation Trainingcr~~ cx~ sr. ~usrrr~ MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM: SUBMITTED BY: STAFF RECOMMENDATION: PREVIOUS PLANNING COMMISSION ACTION: Council Agenda Item ~L! July 8, 2008 Conservation Training St. John's Arboretum BACKGROUND INFORMATION: I have been contacted by SJU Land Manager, Tom Kroll requesting the City consider accepting an offer to provide conservation planning as it relates to the Comprehensive Plan and Ordinances. The St.lohn's Arboretum received legislative funding to promote conservation in the Avon Hills Landscape Area and is offering to use part of the funding to sponsor a workshop focusing on St.loseph. For your convenience I have printed off some of the pages from the website (www.ereenerprospects com) to help illustrate the focus of the training. With regard to the review of the Comprehensive Plan -The City has contracted with a MDG to update the Comprehensive Plan and I am not sure how it will work if the City allows or endorses another professional to review their work. MDG signs the document and places their reputation on the same. If changes are made to the Comprehensive Plan after adoption MDG faces a certain amount of liability if the Plan is challenged. This is not to say the City cannot change the plan, rather, is the change a philosophical change of land use implementation or demographic and policy changes. ATTACHMENTS: Invitation Letter, Organization Information REQUESTED PLANNING COMMISSION ACTION: The Planning Commission needs to determine if they wish to participate in the training and if they wish to have the Comprehensive Plan and Ordinances reviewed by Mr. Arendt. SAINT JOHN'S Arba SAINT JOHN'S ABBEY AND UNIVERSITY June 24, 2008 Judy Weyrens City of St. Joseph PO Box 668 St. Joseph MN 56374 RE: Saint John's offers $12,500 for comprehensive plan training and review Dear Judy, As we discussed, Saint John's Arboretum received a grant to promote conservation in the Avon Hills landscape. Part of that goal is to foster innovations in planning and zoning. Last year, the Avon Hills Initiative and Saint John's co-sponsored a very successful conference featuring Randall Arendt, a nationally recognized expert in designing conservation into comprehensive planning and zoning. Over 120 attended including you, along with all five county commissioners, the majority of the Stearns planning commission, and many township officers. Some of the main points from that conference were included in the innovative new Stearns County comprehensive plan. Saint Johns Arboretum and the Avon Hills Initiative board offers to use part of our grant to underwrite a similar conference focusing on the City of St. Joseph. While last year's conference was about development in rural areas, Mr. Arendt will focus on commercial and residential conservation oriented design in a town like St. Joseph. Saint John's Arboretum will arrange the conference and underwrite the costs and offer reduced fees for city staff and officials. Each participant would receive a binder similar to what you learned from last year. The meeting would be held in St. Joseph and open to the public and advertised to the city and region. This offer has a value of at least $7,500. We hope that the timing of such a conference allows the ideas to percolate into your draft comprehensive plan. With the schedule of your planning commission, I would feel bad if anyone felt the conference ideas came too late. (A new approach we would like to see in the first draft based on Mr. Arendt is the simple but necessary requirement of setting a significant minimum level of open space for every development as a broad rule -- - - - - -- -r -••- minimum lot size rule and change to a maximum number of lots per acre. E.g. Instead of 10,000 sq feet per lot, simply require no more than 4 lots per acre -same thing, but with much increased latitude for allowing the developer to include conservation into the design. These are things that Mr. Arendt says should be clearly outlined in the comp plan so that the later ordinances reflect it.) Another opportunity we would like to offer the city is a specific review by Mr. Arendt of the draft comprehensive plan and the current ordinances. Mr. Arendt would review the document, provide written comments, and travel to St. Joseph to present them to the Planning Commission, City Council, and the public. We propose to pay the entire cost of this service valued at $5,000 from our grants. This activity would occur after the conference sometime in 2008 or 2009 as best fits your schedule. We thank you for the opportunity to be partners in the 30 year vision for St. Joseph. We believe learning about innovations can only add to the quality of the plan and we look forward to working with you in any way we can. Respectfu , ~fhomas Kroll ' Land Manager and Arboretum Director Cc: Please share this with the Planning Commission and City Council and staff Avon Hills Executive Committee Benedict Leuthner, OSB Kara Hennes, OSB Sue Palmer, CSB Kroll, Thomas Full Name: Arendt, Randall Last Name: Arendt First Name: Randall Company: Natural Lands Trust Business Address: 43 Prospect Ave Narragansett, RI 02882 Home Address: info@natlands.org Business: 401 792 8200 Mobile: 401-662-6907 Pager: Easements Other: Randall G. Arendt is a land-use planner, site designer, author, lecturer, and an advocate of 'conservation planning'. He is the author of more than 20 publications including 'Rural by Design: Maintaining Small Town Character;' 'Conservation Design for Su E-mail: rgarendt@cox.net E-mail Display As: Randall Arendt (rgarendt@cox.net) Web Page: http://www.greenerprospects.com/index.html Categories: Avon Hills Observers, Easements Randall G. Arendt is a land-use planner, site designer, author, lecturer, and an advocate of "conservation planning". He is the author of more than 20 publications including "Rural by Design: Maintaining Small Town Character;" "Conservation Design for Subdivisions: A Practical Guide to Creating Open Space Networks;" Growing Greener: Putting Conservation into Local Plans and Ordinances;" and "Crossroads, Hamlet, Village, Town: Design Characteristics of Traditional Neighborhoods, Old and New." Arendt has presented slide lectures in 45 states and five Canadian provinces on the topic of creative development design as a conservation tool. He has also designed "conservation subdivisions" for a wide variety of clients in l 6 states. One community in Livingston County, Michigan, which has implemented conservation design over the past decade, has protected more than 1,500 acres through this approach, representing a land value of at least $20 million (its protection cost through more conventional means). ~~.~. "w.~,,; .~ ~~ c~to t ~~ ~ ~-.'i 1'~~ Greener Prospectsis the business Warne for the professional work of Randall Arendt, who specializes in tyre field. of conservation planning. As practiced at Greener Prospects, conservation planning is the art and science of designing with nature for people. Services are provided in tluee principal areas: educational workshops, site planning and design, and ordinance review -- each of which is elaborated upon in other parts of this website. These services are customized for individual clients, and are provided personally by Mr. Arendt, never by a substitute. Mr. Arendt's work has earned an international reputation for its irurovativeness and creative approach to problem-solving in the fields of land-use and land conservation. Throughout leis career, from his professional training iri Great Britain to his work with countless communities across this country, to his lectures and published articles (both. in the US and overseas), Mr. Arendt has always subscribed to Aldo Leopold's view that one should "think at right angles to one's profession". The practical. solutions developed and espoused by Greener Prospects have helped to save thousands of acres of land in numerous corrrrnurlities at no public cost and at no sacrifice to landowners. Moreover, t?;.~ese results have been achieved without depending upon private donatians or involving illegal regalatory "iakings". ~~~~I~-~t~ S_~;~'~~l_~~~ ~l°~C~L1C~t.S ~G11tc~C~: 1 ]"1~ ~ b l0 -- -- -- l:ttp;//•,a~,a-~~.~:~ee,lerprospecte.cor lfrr:r:.htrrr? 7/:3/2008 ?,':rx~ :~1d,~r ivezrs ~,itr~+:+cel t~~ te,rtl,~ ,~ru-:+:rdra~ tit }T;ta~rr}~ it .da.:.tr~?;F~~' t~'I, cr a:rnr~r~vxir~~ s~~,rivi.sin~ ~~-rrrn~asttca:ar;* r}„~ c7rs}~;ri prfrs~: i~i3rv ~t.~poar~er,1 ~'r~ ~irderel }:~~=~i;~~ts• ~> ,' ~~; ~. ~> z~ ~d i n ~ r~ c- c, I~ +~~ d~ i ~~ ~~+-~i C=reener Prospectsworks with individual loca] goverrn-nents to provide their rnernbers and staff with a detailed review of existing comprehensive plans, zoning ordinances, arPd subdivision standards. A hallmark of this review is its sharp focus on those elements of these documents that have the greatest potentia] for increasing thcc quality, quantity, acid configuration of open space within new residential. developments, to implement the community's broader, ]ong-range goal of protecting intercormect.ed networks of conservation ]ands. Communities wishing to "institutionalize" the twin. concepts of conservation plarrriing and conservation design within tkieir regulatory structure can benefit from this thorough. analysis, filled with specific, practical recorr,rnendations for adding state-of-the ark regulatory procedures and design standards to their zoning and subdivision ordinances. 'I'bis service, as described be]ow, includes two technical memoranda (written in laymen's language), a workshop meeting to discuss the findings arid. recommendations, and a diskette containing model ordinance provisions for use by cornrnunity staff or local consultants. - The process begins with a technical analysis of the conuxnrnity's three principal land-use documents -- its comprehensive plan, its zoning ordinance, and its subdivision regulations. This analysis identifies existing shortcomings er obstacles in these codes which hinder implementation of conservation subdivision design principles. - The second phase comprises two rr~ernoranda. "I'he "Gene.ral Memo" describes tl'ie corrimumty's current land-use documents in the context of conservat!on design principles anal practice. 'The "Detailed Merno" provides a critique of nearly every aspect of those particular documents, from the conservation design perspective. Ik also provides positive recorrirnendations to correct specific deficiencies aril to remove existing obstacles. - The third part of this constructive critique includes a meeting with local officials and .staff to go over the memos and tc answer t}ieir questions. Tr.~e rr~ernos are typically mailed out to members at least a fortnight prior tc tl~lat rrieeting, to give everyone an oppor~unity tc review them! beforel-iand T:r~ese t"vvC memos lay out the "greer~print" for aaoptirg new ordir!ance language for conservation design, SuCY? as GontalneC lr: Mr. fire'iQt'S rF,Cent t;COk, ~'YGN/lri~ (~YeertP,?' ~~uiiiYt~ ~.GYS87°'/Clttorl lYclG :'_.000c~ P°°il[~S QYcGi n~Ci'iYcQriC.'PS'(anl~ for w;iiGl"! d!sketie CO~',eS are also ava'lable). littp://ww ~v, g-reor:erprospects. comlcrdrev.htrr:] 7/ ~/~ Gv~ ~''r~~~ng Jar>>rl:c:nl~.` +~:?; us rhrrr ~rt~,srWrr•~, ~inr o~lx iocrri +~yut'xlrinn~arl/-'s', rersirirulY~c>~•f Uf3'hE' ~ile3Yrl+tt'1 oar. ~'~rllt:J' dfd ~}t'!3' CL+Y~t,~aVl7ri(>n ~#~t]~D'~.tin7J5 N>17FYi »J7PYi.1~°dJ%[Pf 1 ;.~JCilntt!at~+ CIYf up.~~f~ti Pn !31¢' CI't'~1r!)'t' 1'Vtly:' liPtlDiN7tifilCl'E,CI J7i I~iF (i7YJii'7>a,~ '~J7'Y-¢?it'-;' 1.~1Y~f7,iC7Th:#' ,4.i'VIPW. '~< .~,,~ ~.. ~, ~, ~''~~~~al<si~ ~) ` ~sca~~~~tac~17 Conserv~t:ion Subdivision Design as a Tool for T3uilding Corrimunity-wide ()pen Space Networks `T`his workshop session presents a practical, easy-to-use technique that enables developers and local officials to work together to accomplish their different objectives, narrlely the constriction of full- density residential subdivisions (developers' goal.) in such a way that helps to build a con>rnunity-wide network of permanent conservation land (officials' goal). "Phis program is extensively illustrated with numerous financially successful examples of "conservation subdivision. design", together with astraight-forward four-step rriethodology of laying out residential developments around the central organizing principle of open space conservation. Developments of this nature are "twice green" simultaneously achieving both economic and envirorlrrientai goals Together with the varied examples of conservation subdivisions tl'iat have been designed, proposed, reviewed, approved, financed, built, sold, and lived in, this program describes a simple four-step design process through which this kind of development can be easily laid out. In addition to illustrating several case studies in which this four-step process has been successfully followed, the program describes some additional design enhancements that improve marketability and bottom-line profitability (tl~,rough let pa~emiums and taster absorption). Lastly, the program describes hor"v this design process can fit into the local regulatory framework thro+3gh specific provisions in corr~prehensive plans, zoning ordinances, ar~d subdivision regulations. As each conservation subdivision is com~pieted, another link I the community-wide network of open lands is expanded, until ultimately a interconnected network of conservation areas is preserved. I'1'i1S WorkS`?0~ aISC ^ontalnS a Segn7ent deSCrlblrig hoW tl"iese r1nClp~eS curl tie a infill projects in serrired locations; and in situations involvi p t~~ pplied to higl':er-der_~sity ng rncrerrlen ~ growtl-: around the :?ttp://w•.~rw.g: sere;p;c~spe~:ts.ccm/~.~rsdesc.ht~i? 7/?/2008 k£3'it~@!)~S a~ ~if~icia~ of Bior,cr~ C.rarn.ra; 7:~' pargici~ra7a tea a ~ar~d's-a~; ~'lP.ti~rr ~x~r-~f,c,~, Jarrtrarl~ 2~J~Jt?, community's outer edges. This part of the program showcases the design insights provided by the New Urbanist movement, which takes a more formal, mixed-use approach to creating compact development in areas with utility connections -- complementing conservation design which is typically applied in more outlying areas. Examples of communities that have preserved hundreds (sometimes thousands) of acres of open space within afive-year period without spending a dollar of public money will be cited, all involving situations where developers have achieved their full density objectives at a lower production cost, and where the original equity of landowners has not been disturbed. For instance, the planing approach advocated in Growing Greener has conserved more than 500 acres of prime farmland in a single township (Lower Makefield, Bucks, County, PA) in just five years, and that figure continuers to rise as new conservation subdivisions are propose and approve. At an average land value of $7,000 per acre, this represents approximately $3.5 millon worth of conservation, achieved without spending public funds, without controversial down-zoning, and without complicated density transfers (TDRs). A similar per-acre saving has also occurred in Hamburg Township, Livingston County, Michigan, where approximately 2,000 acres of land have been protected through conservation subdivision design over the last ten years. And 2,500 acres have also been saved through this same technique in Calvert County, Maryland during the first two years of the new land-use techniques.The combined value of those lands is in the neighborhood of $40 million,which makes this technique probably one of the most cost-effective planning tools available to growing communities on the metro edge. Optional Workshop: Hands-On Design Exercise As a follow-up to the slide lecture, a participatory workshop is offered to provide conference attendees with an opportunity to learn first-hand how to design a subdivision around the special features of any given property. This workshop gives everyone the chance to internalize what they have seen and heard during the previous slide lecture by applying the four-step design process to a real parcel of land, selecting house sites in relation to the pre-identified conservation areas, aligning streets and trails, and finally drawing in the lot lines. Participants typically say that this exercise really helps them understand exactly how the conservation design principles illustrated in the slides actually work on a piece of ground, and makes the lecture even more meaningful. It is especially recommended for those without a background in creative design, such as local officials, engineers, surveyors, and most land-use planners. home about products contact links reviews http://www.greenerprospects.com/wsdesc.html 7/3/2008