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SUSTAINABLE PLACES
Modernized Infrastructure
Network
Improved Stormwater
Management
Conserved Natural Resources
Opportunities for Healthy
Lifestyles
Diverse Housing Choices
Enhanced Community Character
CONSERVE NATURAL RESOURCES, ENVIRONMENTALLY-SENSITIVE
AREAS,AND FARMLAND
Montgomery County has many unique natural resources and open space that should be conserved through a variety of
methods. To conserve these areas, the county will take a leadership role
and will...
...advocate with local municipalities, conservation groups, the
state, property owners, businesses and others to permanently
protect natural resources, open space, and rural areas.
Successful natural resource and open space preservation will be achieved through
partnerships involving the county, municipalities, the state, conservation groups,
property owners, foundations, and private funders. This unprotected open space
falls into two categories:
■■
Conservation Opportunity Areas
—generally, these areas are
environmentally-significant landscapes that connect existing preserved open
space, primarily existing parks and conservancy lands. The Conservation
Opportunity Areas primarily consist of streams, rivers, wooded highlands,
forested floodplains, wetlands, and diabase geology areas. These areas might
also include adjacent golf courses, large cemeteries, and large institutional
properties
When feasible, these areas should be permanently protected through fee-
simple purchase or a conservation easement. Recognizing the success of past
open space initiatives, the county should explore options for conservation
programs that promote active tourism, protect critical conservation areas,
increase opportunities to excercise, and green the county’s towns. Other
preservation techniques can be useful, such as encouraging development on the
least environmentally-significant part of a property, transfer of development
rights ordinances, land stewardship, and adopting natural resource protection
ordinances, such as steep slope and woodland preservation ordinances.
On some properties, zoning ordinances, such as a cluster ordinance, could
allow development on less-significant parts of the site while greenways,
environmentally sensitive land, historic properties, and viewsheds are preserved.
■■
Rural Resource Areas
– these rural areas primarily consist of farms, scattered
low-density homes, and villages. The county already preserves farms through
its farmland preservation program, and local municipalities sometimes
preserve farms and other rural landscapes too. Communities can also use land
preservation cluster ordinances, transfer of development rights, and farmland
zoning to preserve the low density Rural Resource Areas.
■■ Increase in acres of open
space preserved
■■ New municipal ordinances
protecting open space and
natural resources
■■ Percent of new development
in areas shown as open
space or rural resource areas
on the county’s future land
use map
Measuring success
Greenways and stream corridors, like
Saw Mill Run Creek, are vulnerable areas
that should be protected.
