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30 Planning August 1990 P L A 3 11 N N I N G N E W S Help keep us up -to -date. Send newspaper clippings about significant local planning issues or brief descriptions of events, con- troversies, or noticeable trends. Include names of sources if possible. We'll follow up. Send to Jim Schwab, Planning, 1313 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637, Loudoun County Clears the Way for Hamlets Following up on a two - yearlong planning process, the Loudoun County, Virginia, board of supervisors in June passed a new zoning ordinance that encourages developers to group rural subdivisions in clustered "hamlets:' The new zoning allows clusters of five to 25 lots, each as small as a third of an acre, in districts pre- viously zoned for three -acre lots. In exchange for the higher density, developers must designate 90 percent of their acreage as permanent open space. The cluster development harks back to the area's traditional rural settlements, ac- cording to county planning coordinator Richard Calderon, who says it is the first known use of such zoning in a rural con- text. See "Repent, Ye Sinners, Repent," August 1989.) When proposed last year, Calderon says, the idea met considerable support in most quarters but "uncertainty and doubt" in the development community. But he says developers are responding favorably, in- cluding one who had originally proposed four- and five -acre lots on about 1,000 acres of land, but recently substituted a plan conforming to the hamlet design. In a letter to county planning director Milton Herd, Miami architect Andres Duany, who has done site planning for several Loudoun County developments, Increased density and an open space buffer go hand in hand in Loudoun County's new hamlet zoning. F F c Christmas trees help to anchor a wetlands resloration project at Lahe Pontchartrain, of Louisiana's first annual wetlands plan, which focuses heavily on coastal a praised the ordinance as encouraging an "ideal pattern of low- density develop- ment." However, planning consultant Marc S. Weiss, of Leesburg, president of the county chapter of the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association, says the 400 -foot buffer required around clustered housing leaves developers too little flexibility to adapt to the terrain and find appropriate septic fields, "Developers support clustering, but the ordinance is geared more to visually pleasing the peo- ple passing by than to the people living there;' Weiss says. Louisiana Weakens Wetlands Law No net loss of wetlands may be national policy, but in Louisiana, that idea is still struggling. Bowing to industry and legislative pressure, the state Wetlands Conservation and Restoration Authority, part of Gov. Buddy Roemer's office, deleted a no net loss provision from the final version of its first annual wetlands plan, submitted to the state legislature in April. For Louisiana, says Paul Kemp, ex- ecutive director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, the problem is serious. The state, which contains 40 percent of the nation's coastal wetlands, lost about 40 square miles of them last year, largely due to development connected with the oil and gas industry, The state has also lost large amounts of inland wetlands to agriculture. The authority's draft plan, released in March, listed as a plan objective achiev- ing "a goal of no net loss of fu ctional wetland values due to permitted activities by 1996:' That language ran into a buzz - saw of opposition from business interests and the legislature's natural resources committees, forcing some compromises. The revised version instead suggests pro- viding "for replacement of functional coastal wetland values lost due to future [permitted] activities." That language triggered further debate, and another bill— giving to the state natu- ral resources department rul making authority on replacement of coastal wet- lands— passed in the closing hours of the session last month. That measure, says Kemp, may still allow no net loss to be achieved through the. rulemaking process, where he predicts "hard battles over the fine print. We're concentrating now on the nuts and bolts" of mitigation. Last fall, state voters approved a referen- dum allocating 525 - million year] for wet- lands protection and restoration, with the money coming from state mineral revenues. The measure also created the new coastal authority and required it to produce an annual wetlands plan to outline policy and list planned r storation projects. .. r±•' s��. ��. 9- �+`' ,;rL.y�.,- :..a% "�3:`s.: *��w`..- - - .- ., .. .. ....... _. � ice' ^_ ...- � =,�� - •�;«.� =.:rte y. �� Christmas trees help to anchor a wetlands resloration project at Lahe Pontchartrain, of Louisiana's first annual wetlands plan, which focuses heavily on coastal a praised the ordinance as encouraging an "ideal pattern of low- density develop- ment." However, planning consultant Marc S. Weiss, of Leesburg, president of the county chapter of the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association, says the 400 -foot buffer required around clustered housing leaves developers too little flexibility to adapt to the terrain and find appropriate septic fields, "Developers support clustering, but the ordinance is geared more to visually pleasing the peo- ple passing by than to the people living there;' Weiss says. Louisiana Weakens Wetlands Law No net loss of wetlands may be national policy, but in Louisiana, that idea is still struggling. Bowing to industry and legislative pressure, the state Wetlands Conservation and Restoration Authority, part of Gov. Buddy Roemer's office, deleted a no net loss provision from the final version of its first annual wetlands plan, submitted to the state legislature in April. For Louisiana, says Paul Kemp, ex- ecutive director of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, the problem is serious. The state, which contains 40 percent of the nation's coastal wetlands, lost about 40 square miles of them last year, largely due to development connected with the oil and gas industry, The state has also lost large amounts of inland wetlands to agriculture. The authority's draft plan, released in March, listed as a plan objective achiev- ing "a goal of no net loss of fu ctional wetland values due to permitted activities by 1996:' That language ran into a buzz - saw of opposition from business interests and the legislature's natural resources committees, forcing some compromises. The revised version instead suggests pro- viding "for replacement of functional coastal wetland values lost due to future [permitted] activities." That language triggered further debate, and another bill— giving to the state natu- ral resources department rul making authority on replacement of coastal wet- lands— passed in the closing hours of the session last month. That measure, says Kemp, may still allow no net loss to be achieved through the. rulemaking process, where he predicts "hard battles over the fine print. We're concentrating now on the nuts and bolts" of mitigation. Last fall, state voters approved a referen- dum allocating 525 - million year] for wet- lands protection and restoration, with the money coming from state mineral revenues. The measure also created the new coastal authority and required it to produce an annual wetlands plan to outline policy and list planned r storation projects.