Conservation Subdivision Design In Practice: Using Geographic Information Systems to Measure Whether It Lives Up to Its Promise

The majority of new home construction in suburban areas is in the form of what is known as conventional development whereby all or nearly all lawfully developable land is converted to streets and houselots of basically equal size and dimensions; this urban sprawl is necessitating creative land use techniques to slow the consumption of open lands. This research describes how conservation subdivision design is an attempt to alter this pattern by means of clustering homes close together on smaller lots in order to preserve open space. It describes the conservation design process and establishes a framework and methodology utilizing Geographic Information Systems that allows individuals to evaluate the results of conservation design developments (open space preservation). The study applies the framework and methodology to six conservation design developments west of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, demonstrating how to measure the success of conservation development designs, and should be especially useful to land use planning college courses, municipal planning commissions, and residential developers.