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automobile and is characterized by a vibrant town center, compact residential development, mixed land uses, .and a grid street pattern. Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater - Zyberk are the foremost proponents of neotraditional development. Kentlands in Gaithersburg, Maryland, was designed by them. As an example of the scale of neotraditional development, Kentlands is situated on approximately 350 acres and is planned for 1,600 housing units as well office and retail uses. Rural Character In 1988, the County Commissioners appointed a Rural Character Study Committee and charged them with identifying ways of preserving rural open space with minimal impacts on affected property owners. Preserving agriculture, protecting natural and visual resources, managing quality growth, and providing flexibility for rural residents were identified as study goals. The committee found that the current zoning standard allowing one acre lot development (outside the Rural Buffer) with no open space was not conducive to protecting rural character. The Committee felt that encouraging open space development or larger lot conventional development should be a priority for future rural development. A set of recommended development options was formulated and would be available to all property owners/ developers, to select the option they preferred. Conventional development without open space would be permitted if lots averaged five -acres in size (with an incentives package to promote this "de -facto open space" option). As a compromise between keeping the existing one -acre zoning, and not allowing conventional development without open space, conventional development would also be permitted if an average lot size of 1.84 acres (the average lot size in major subdivisions in the County) were maintained. The opportunity to achieve one unit /acre density was not taken away, however. Developers setting aside open space would receive a density bonus. With a minimum threshold of 20% open space, developers would get a bonus of 0.1 units per.acre for each 10% of open space protected. A development with 20% open space would allow 0.8 lots per acre (80 lots per 100 acres) while a development with 70% open space would allow 1.3 lots per acre (130 lots per 100 acres). Finally, the Committee recommended that a provision allowing up to five one -acre lots for existing tracts of land be included, and that small area plans be undertaken in each of the County's rural activity nodes. Summary This paper has presented a short overview of the status quo, open space, neotraditional, and Rural Character plan alternatives being developed for the Stoney Creek Basin Small Area Plan. Fuller descriptions of the techniques and assumptions underlying each alternative will be in the text accompanying the draft plans.