BUILDABLE LANDS STUDY
TOWN OF
NEW HARTFORD
OPEN
SPACE PRESERVATION COMMISSION
Produced by
Alexander Persons
Farmington River Watershed
Association
September 2003
CONTENTS
Summary
Methods & Data Sources
Map Explanations & Results
References
Maps
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The
Farmington River Watershed Association would like to thank the following:
The New Hartford Open Space Preservation Commission for its
enthusiasm and commitment to this project and to open space conservation in the
Town of New Hartford.
Karl Nilsen and Lynne Charest of the New Hartford Land Use Office
for their technical and logistical support.
Gail
Sartori, New Hartford Tax Assessor, for providing essential Grand
List information.
SUMMARY
In the
Spring of 2003 the New Hartford Open Space Preservation Commission contracted
the Farmington River Watershed Association (FRWA)[1] to conduct a buildable land
study of the town. The purpose of this
study was to analyze all lands in town to determine which lands were still
available for residential or commercial development.
New Hartford is located on the expanding edge of suburban
metro-Hartford development. Due to its
proximity to a major metropolitan area and its attractive rural character, New
Hartford has experienced much growth in the past 50 years, with its population
growing by over 150%. Currently New
Hartford has the greatest number of permit applications for new residential
developments for a town of its size in the greater Hartford area, with over 90
applications in process with the town.[2]
The Buildable Lands Study is a valuable tool for New
Hartford’s land use commissions because it shows how the town could be
developed in the future under current zoning regulations. The study can also help the town prioritize
lands which are most appropriate to develop, and lands which are most
appropriate to conserve. As New
Hartford experiences more and more pressure for residential and commercial
development, the Buildable Lands Study can aid town planners, commission
members and elected officials in weighing the costs and benefits of future
conservation and development. In
particular, the Buildable Lands Study can help guide the Open Space
Preservation Commission in identifying and prioritizing important pieces of
land in town for open space acquisition.
METHODOLOGY &
DATA SOURCES
The New Hartford Buildable Lands Study was completed
using ArcView 3.2/ArcGIS 8.2 Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software.[3] Methods for the study were borrowed from
several different sources, most notably from MASSGIS[4]
and from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.[5]
A builable lands study is designed to determine which
lands in town are available for (or vulnerable to) development. The most direct way to determine this is to
figure out which lands are not available for development because
of natural features (wetlands, floodplains, steep slopes), open space
protection status, or because they are already developed. These lands are then subtracted from the
total town area, leaving the buildable lands on the map.
Buildable lands are determined through a series of steps
done in GIS as follows:
Step 1)
Subtract all permanently protected open space. This is most easily done by consultation with a town’s planner,
land use commissions, or local land trusts.
In the case of New Hartford, the Open Space Preservation Commission has
a comprehensive map of permantently protected open spaces in town.
Step 2)
Subtract natural features that are constraints to development based on
municipal zoning regulations. In
New Hartford this means wetlands, FEMA designated floodplains, and slopes over
25%.
Step 3) Subtract already
developed residential and commercial lands. Already developed lands are determined
through analyzing the Grand List of the town.
First all the vacant residential and commercial parcels are selected as
buildable and removed from this analysis.
Next non-vacant residential parcels are analyzed to determine whether
they are “built-out” to the maximum extent allowed by their zone, or still have
potential to be further subdivided and developed. If an already developed parcel is greater than 2 ½ times its
minimum lot size allowed in that zone, then it is considered to have buildable
land associated with it, and can be classified as “underdeveloped.” For example, a 6 acre parcel with a single
family home in a 2 acre residential zone would be considered underdeveloped,
and therefore buildable under current zoning regulations. A 4 acre parcel with a single family home in
the same zone would not be considered buildable, because the total lot size
does not exceed 2 ½ times the minimum lot size requirement for that zone.
Step 4)
Subtract 10% from “gross buildable” lands for roads, sidewalks, and
inefficiencies in new developments.[6] This step takes into account that new
developments must use a certain amount of the area to be developed for roads
and road right-of-ways, sidewalks, conforming odd lot shapes, and
inefficiencies. This land is not
considered to be buildable.
After subtracting the land areas as outlined in steps
1-4, the remaining lands are the town’s buildable lands.
The data sources for the buildable lands study were
varied, though most of the information is available to the public, free of any
charge, from federal, state and local sources.
The spatial data sources for use in GIS were ArcView shapefiles
and AutoCAD drawings. The sets
of data that are necessary to complete a buildable lands study are: town
parcels (lot lines) tagged with unique id’s; wetland boundaries; floodplain
boundaries; contours, elevations and slopes; surface water features; zoning;
permanently protected open space; and roads. In addition, the town’s Assessor’s Grand List is required,
preferably in digital form, for determining whether land is vacant,
underdeveloped, or already developed.
MAP EXPLAINATIONS & RESULTS
The Development Constraints map shows areas of wetlands,
surface water features, floodplains, steep slopes greater than 25%, and
protected open space.
The Buildable Land by Zone map shows which lands are
available for (or vulnerable to) development based on an analysis of
development constraints and already built-upon land. It also breaks down the actual acreages of buildable land by zone
and the overall percentage of buildable land in town.
Results
|
Acres Buildable Land by Zone |
|
|
Zone |
Acres |
|
Commercial |
164 |
|
Industrial |
78 |
|
R15 |
135 |
|
R1 1/2 |
1,193 |
|
R2 |
8,790 |
|
R30 |
72 |
|
R4 |
240 |
|
Total |
10,672 |
Approximately 44% of New Hartford’s total area is
buildable. The majority of this land,
roughly 98%, is residential. The
continued development of these areas is a potential problem for the tax base of
the town because of the costs of providing services to residential areas versus
the tax benefits gained from residential development.[7] The “build-out” of these residential areas
would also mean a very significant increase in town population and automobile
traffic. These facts strongly support
open space acquisition and preservation as a strategy to ease financial burdens
of the town.
REFERENCES
Recommended
Methodology and Work Program for a Buildable Lands Analysis for Snohomish
County and its Cities. ECONorthwest. July 2000.
Scope of Services for
Buildout Analysis. MassGIS.
http://www.state.ma.us/mgis/buildout.htm.
Green Communities: How
To Do A Buildout Analysis. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. http://www.epa.gov/greenkit/build_out.htm.
Buildout Analysis. Town of
Franklin, Mass. http://www.franklin.ma.us/town/planning/buildout.htm
A Buildout Analysis
for the Town of Coventry, R.I. Eric Brazer. Brown University Center for Environmental Studies. May 2002.
http://envstudies.brown.edu/Classes/Es192/2002/WebReports/Pawtuxet2.pdf
Buildable Land
Analysis: Southeast Travers County. Community and Regional Planning
Program. University of Texas,
Austin. 2003.
http://www.ar.utexas.edu/cadlab/386/Julie/PPMindex.html
Town of Salem, CT
Buildout Analysis. 2003.