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STONEY CREEK BASIN SMALL AREA PLAN ALTERNATIVES Preparation of the Stoney Creek Basin Small Area Plan calls for the development of four alternative plans. Three of these, the Status Quo, Open Space, and Neotraditional alternatives will be developed by graduate planning students at the UNC Department of City and Regional Planning. The fourth plan, the Rural Character alternative, will be developed by Orange County Planning staff. Phase II of the planning process will involve a critical review of the alternatives by the Planning Group. Desirable features of the various plans will be retained and eventually incorporated into a recommended plan for the area. Status Ouo The Status Quo begins with the current land use plan which projects predominantly residential development for most of the area. The northern 15 -200 of the area is classified as transition where development can occur at densities greater than one unit per acre with the extension of municipal water and sewer. Three to five percent of the area contained in the extreme south is Rural Buffer. Development here is restricted to two acre lots with wells and septic tanks. With the exception of 450 acres of Duke Forest, the remainder (60 -650) of the area is classified as Rural Residential. Here development can take place at approximately one unit per acre utilizing wells and septic tanks. Utilizing the suitability analysis and existing plan for the area, the Status Quo team will make recommendations on how conventional residential development in the area might occur. Open Space The Open Space. alternative is based largely on the design principles advocated by Randall Arendt. In general, open space developments differ from conventional, i.e., status. quo, subdivisions in that development is clustered on a portion of the site, leaving other portions in some type of open space. For example, a 100 acre tract could be developed as a conventional subdivision with 47 two -acre lots, excluding street rights-of-way. An open space development on the same tract might preserve 50 acres of the site in permanent open space, clustering 47 homes on one - acre lots adjacent to the open space. A significant advantage of open space development is the creation of permanent open space which may be set aside to protect natural areas, wildlife corridors, scenic vistas, historic sites, or provide for continued use for agricultural purposes. Neotraditional The American town of the late 19th and early 20th century provides the basis for the Neotraditional model. Neotraditional development is oriented to the pedestrian rather than the