Presentation on suburban land conservation to the Commission on Environmental Quality

1. Barbara L. Hopkins, JD, ASLA
Executive Director
October 27, 2010
Copies available @www.neighborspacebaltimorecounty.org/Resources.html 1

2. • THE VAST MAJORITY OF
COUNTY RESIDENTS LIVE
WITHIN THE URDL (≈734,000+)
• POPULATION IS DENSE
• OPEN SPACE IS SCARCE
• N/S CREATED IN 2002
• MISSION ELEMENTS:
o COMMUNITY PARTNERSHPS
o PROTECTING “SMALL”
 PARKS
 GARDENS
 NATURAL AREAS
• FUNDING:
o COUNTY ORDINANCE
REQUIRING 1000 SF OF
OPEN SPACE/DWELLING
UNIT OR PAYMENT OF
“FEE IN LIEU.”
o N/S MAY RECEIVE UP TO
10% OF FEES COLLECTED.*
*Baltimore County Code, Section 32-6-108. 2

3. • “THE LARGEST ESTATE & MOST
EXTENSIVE INTEREST THAT
CAN BE ENJOYED IN LAND.”*
• VERY FEW RESTRICTIONS ON
OWNER’S “BUNDLE OF
RIGHTS.”
• A RESTRICTION ON THE
OWNER’S RIGHT TO USE THE
PROPERTY.
• WITH CONSERVATION
EASEMENTS** USE RIGHTS ARE
RESTRICTED “IN PERPETUITY.”
* Black’s Law Dictionary, 5 th ed.
** A conservation easement is a legal agreement between a landowner and a nonprofit land trust and/or government entity3
that permanently limits the uses of the land in order to protect specified conservation values.

4. NeighborSpace Sites
Urban Rural
Demarcation Line
(URDL)
Council Districts
HAMPTON LANE
PRESERVE
BRANCHWOOD
TOLLGATE
WYNDHAM MEMORIAL
EAST PENN. AVE
GREENBRIER
EAST AVE
GWYNN OAK
AVE VOLZ PARK
ROBIN HILL RD
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5. TRANSACTION POTENTIAL BENEFITS TO L/O RESPONSIBILITIES OF L/T
TYPE
FEE SIMPLE • Receives current cash value of total • Baseline documentation
PURCHASE parcel • Recruitment/training of
• Elimination of property taxes property manager
• Annual monitoring
EASEMENT • Receives current cash value of • Ongoing
PURCHASE easement landowner/community
• Likely reduction in property taxes manager relationships
FEE SIMPLE • Elimination of property taxes • Liability/conservation
DONATION • Federal and State income tax defense insurance
deductions • Enforcement
• Federal and State estate/ • Dedication ceremonies
inheritance tax reductions • Signs
• Brochures
EASEMENT • Abatement of property taxes (5 • Maps
DONATION yrs, renewable) • Fundraising to support
• Federal and State income tax administrative activities
deductions • Planning and fundraising
• Federal and State estate/ for development, where
inheritance tax reductions applicable.
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6. Before After
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7. Current Conditions Proposed Plan
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8. 8

9. “Principles of the new urbanism … generate
development patterns that use land more
economically than does prevailing contemporary
practice … [but] natural areas have limited or
peripheral roles, typically as edges or
boundaries to neighborhoods … A more “green”
model would create explicit places for nature
and ecological functions, integrate them with
the development pattern, and balance the
competing spatial demands of open space,
streets, and land uses within.” p. 14
“The linked network pattern … focuses on a …
negotiated distribution and connection of diverse
open space elements. Open spaces and connections
could be larger, and connections to them more
generous, at points of higher environmental value and
lesser development value, such as near an important
stream corridor. Open spaces could be smaller, and
connections to them narrower, at points of high
THE “LINKED NETWORK” development value and lower environmental value,
PATTERN OF OPEN SPACE such as near major roads.” p. 15 9
DEVELOPMENT

10. Coffee Creek Center, Indiana
634-acre study area planned for
3,000 dwellings in a series of
mixed-use neighborhoods, each
with a commercial center, and
situated around the Coffee Creek
ecological preserve. Partially
constructed in 2004. Gross
density is 4. 7 dwellings per acre.
Girling and Kellett, Skinny Streets, pp. 41-44.
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11. Ellen Dunham Jones on Retrofitting Suburbia
For more information, please go to www.neighborspacebaltimorecounty.org or contact Barbara
Hopkins @barbara_hopkins@verizon.net or at 443-610-8601.
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