Conservation development and design

CLC staff have the expertise to assist municipalities and review boards with new development proposals to help ensure that they reflect community goals and protect natural and cultural resources. This help is most effective if CLC is involved early in the process, before extensive resources have been committed to design and engineering. This approach can help avoid both excess costs and an adversarial process.

CLC can assist with site analysis, evaluate the proposed development plan, and generate alternative design approaches. Initial project reviews will be provided free of charge; more extensive involvement can be funded through a municipality’s escrow law, as with any consultant review. CLC can also hold easements on reserved open space in connection with conservation subdivisions.

CLC’s mission is to work with communities to conserve farmland, forests, wildlife habitat, and rural open spaces in Columbia County and strengthen connections between people and the land. Thus it is within our mission to support open space conservation in connection with residential development projects. Because such easements present a different set of circumstances and issues than those established by an individual landowner, it is important that the municipality, developer and CLC confer early in the development of a project.