Agenda - 06-06-1994 - VIII-N - Laserfiche WebLink

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lb ISSUE PAPER DEFINITION &AMOUNT OF OPEN SPACE Background Two concerns are of particular importance to the issue of Open-Space Developments (OSD) in Orange County: • What defines open space within an open-space (rural cluster) development?Stated another way, what types of uses should be permitted in areas designated permanent open space? • Is 50% of the total tract an appropriate percentage of land to require as permanent open space in an Open-Space Development?A related question is - 50% of what?Total site area? Buildable area? Rural Character Study Committee Recommendations The Rural Character Study Committee considered the issue of open space during 1990-92. The question of allowed uses within designated open space was one with which the Committee spent many hours in deliberation. Issues of active recreation use, utility easements, and wastewater treatment fields were debated over several meetings.The Committee eventually came to a compromise definition on these issues.This definition can be found in the Committee report,Conceptual Guidelines for Rural Orange(see attachment). In general, the Committee defined open space as natural, scenic or agricultural areas. Under certain conditions or situations, however, other uses would be permitted in open space areas, including entrance roads, historic and archaeological sites, wastewater nitrification fields, and open, vegetated playfields and recreation sites - both public and private. The Committee also spent a great deal of time on the issue of percentage of open space that should be required for Open-Space Developments.A number of draft development strategies were devised, and arguments were presented in favor of higher open space percentages for resource protection-and lower percentages for financial considerations. In the end, the Committee folded both arguments into a compromise package. The Committee recommended that open space requirements be tied to density bonuses for Open-Space Developments in a sliding scale.The more open space protected,the greater the density bonus.The Committee also recommended a range of open space requirements at 10%increments. On the low end of the scale, an Open-Space Development with 20% open space could attain 0.8 lots per gross acre. On the top end, an Open-Space Development with 70% open space would be allowed 1.3 lots per acre. In this way, the Committee attempted to provide for a wide range of options as an incentive to pursue Open-Space Developments. University Station Work Group Efforts In the spring of 1994, a work group of County and Town of Hillsborough officials was formed to prepare a small area plan to resolve development issues on the proposed 852-acre University Station development site. Using a design studio approach, members of the work group attempted to design the optimum project under each jurisdictions'goals. Using the ideas of open-space planner Randall Arendt, the work groups considered defining areas to be protected or preserved by identifying "primary" and "secondary conservation areas." There was agreement on the types of area within each to be protected in "primary conservation areas"; e.g., unbuildable areas such as water bodies, steep slopes, alluvial soils, tloodplams,and wetlands. In terms of "secondary conservation areas", there was less agreement.The Hillsborough team included historic sites, a significant hardwood forest area a golf course, and landscape buffers as part of its "secondary" area,