Preserving a Rural Landscape
Every time I drive back to Jasper County from anywhere else, I breathe a sigh of relief. The forests and fields envelop me. The small town of Monticello charms me. The barns and fences of my neighbor bring me peace.
Some of you may share these feelings.
We live here not only because of a house or family or a job, but for its sense of place. How we can smell the honeysuckle in the air in the morning or the pine as we walk quietly through a forest. We can see stretches of green from our windows and nothing else. These things are calming.
But we also know that these attributes—the space, the green—are not guaranteed.
We need only look to a few of our neighboring counties where identical houses on small lots bump up against yet another gated subdivision with yet more similar houses with only the occasional, newly-planted tree providing shade.
Often, when these subdivisions (not neighborhoods or communities) are constructed, heavy machinery comes through, removes all the vegetation and grades the land, leveling it to make it as easy as possible to construct one house after another, following a master plan. Trees are cut down. Natural features are removed. Rarely do the subdivisions include sidewalks or parks — hallmarks of desirable neighborhoods in older towns and communities.
In recognition of these realities and likely impending growth, our local government, several years ago, brought in a land planning consultant to assist the county with its ordinances. The result was the recommendation of and adoption of land development regulations that include conservation subdivisions.
Within our ordinances, one of the purposes of development is to “[a]ssure the provision of appropriate open spaces and building sites in new land developments through the dedication or reservation of land for recreational space, buffer areas, or other conservation purposes” (Part II, Ch. 105, Art. 1, Sec. 105-1).
Originally, conservation subdivisions (Sec. 105-159) were supposed to be the default land management strategy—in other words, all development plans for subdivisions were required to follow those requirements. Now they are merely an option in residentially-zoned areas.
The conservation subdivision permits a village-like plan, permitting smaller, denser lots for homes but requiring that at least 40 percent of the acreage to remain in conservation—to serve as contiguous green space. This plan can recognize that there are natural land features that should be preserved without development and permit a more neighborly community, taking into account scenic vistas, historical and archaeological sites, parks and diverse building techniques. This plan also reduces the necessity for intensive grading and reduces the cost of infrastructure (fewer streets and smaller distances to lay pipe, fiber and wire).
Perhaps the concern regarding conservation subdivisions was a fear of smaller lot sizes (despite the protection of designated green space). Some people believe that the way to try to preserve our pastoral landscape is through minimum lot sizes. In agricultural areas in Jasper County, the minimum lot size is five acres. Should a developer want to buy up a 600 acre track, then he or she could cut that 600 acre former farm into 120 “ranchettes.” Though the acreage minimum prevents a 1,200 lot subdivision on half acre lots, it does nothing to prevent land being cut into pieces that ignore natural land features and boundaries, such as forests, hills and fields.
I am looking out of my window right now, a window that looks out on the Piedmont — named not just because of the physiographic region upon which it lies, but also for the farming community for which it is known. My view looks out on trees, a field, a fence and then another field that leads down into a small creek valley and then up to another hill. It’s beautiful. I don’t see a single house from here.
When I was leaving the Vanilla Bean the other day, another customer, walking in, was talking to his friends, looking around the town appraisingly, and said, “This place is going to take off, it’s going to grow.”
Though I may not have liked to hear it, he wasn’t wrong. If we are going to face this growth and remain on the other side of it with our same sense of community and same stunning views, then we must grow with shared values in mind and protect those values through sensible laws and vigilant enforcement.