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The Changing American DreamBy Lois B. Robbins Your large house sits on 3 acres of lawn. You’re barely aware of your closest neighbor, six acres away. Your black-top driveway connects to a black-top road that connects to the highways that connect you to your work. For many people this is The American Dream. It’s what some people think of as open space. However, this vision of The American Dream is changing, primarily because it costs too much. As the price tag for this way of living increases, both for individual homebuyers and for communities, many Americans are realizing that it’s not only cost-prohibitive, it’s also not necessary for the enjoyment of a high quality of life. Open Space means different things to different people. For some, it means large house/large lot. For many, it means undeveloped land. Those who want to live closer to nature are looking, not just for a house or a subdivision, but for a feeling of wildness. They like the undisciplined tangledness of a woods or a wetland. These things are deeply nourishing for them. For these people, a high quality of life means having the natural world at their doorstep. For planners, it’s more than aesthetics. Preserving natural open space conserves valuable natural resources. We need open space to protect the water on which we all depend. We need wooded areas to hold the soil in place. We need the wetlands to filter out pollutants before they reach our aquifers. We need undeveloped areas where there are no fertilizers or pesticides to be washed into waterways. We need communities of native plants to sustain the wildlife many of us like to hunt and the birds we like to watch. Increasingly, planners in rural townships are relying on Open-Space Planning, or Compact Development. In North Oakland County, this planning design tool is called “Cluster Housing”. With this option, homebuyers who are looking for proximity to nature are served by the setting aside and preserving of natural settings and ecologically sensitive areas, usually about 50 % of the site, while houses, built with newer construction techniques, are clustered on smaller lots. Developers like this option too. For them, shorter pipes and fewer roads mean reduced costs. These sensitive preserved natural areas are also those with the greatest aesthetic appeal, so a well-designed cluster development provides a view of the protected area from each house. The preserved open space is available to all of the homeowners in the development for their enjoyment. For these buyers, access to nature represents a true quality of life. Because common open areas need some management oversight, conservation easements are usually placed on them, with a conservancy such as NOHLC stewarding the open space. As more and more of this type of development takes place, conservancies, planners, and developers will be looking for ways to link them together, so wildlife corridors are preserved. Cluster Housing is a way of helping people realize a new American Dream, - one that is more neighborly, more affordable, and more in touch with nature.
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