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Why is Density Zoning Better than Minimum Lot Size Zoning?

written by Jane Waters
January 17, 2007

One of the most important objectives in the Comprehensive Town Plan is to maintain the rural character of Pine Plains. The Zoning Commission must follow the Comprehensive Plan and develop zoning that allows for growth and commercial development while it also preserves the environment and the rural character of the town.

A typical conventional subdivision (left) and a clustered subdivision (right) with three clustered 'pods' of homes. At least 50% of the site is preserved as open space and the houses are clustered on slightly smaller lots. (from Town of Pine Plains Comprehensive Plan, page 52)

Minimum lot size zoning is the traditional kind of zoning that mandates what size lots can be approved in various parts of a community, such as half or quarter acre lots in the town center and three, five or ten acre lots in the districts beyond the hamlet areas. Larger lots than the minimum can be created but no new lots smaller than the minimum can be created in this kind of zoning. The classic neighborhoods built before traditional zoning codes were adopted would be illegal under most zoning codes today. Traditional zoning eventually segregates people by income because the larger lots outside of the town center are too expensive for most people of modest means. It also creates sprawl because large lots use up more of the landscape. This is the zoning that is prevalent in most of the U.S. and is the zoning that exists in all of the communities bordering Pine Plains. Nearly all of these communities are now redoing their zoning regulations to address the problems that it creates. The Pine Plains Zoning Commission has instead sought to avoid those problems by using a density based model of zoning.

Density based zoning assigns a total permissible number of residential units that may be built on any given parcel of land using a base density plus environmental criteria to establish the numbers of residential units the land can reasonably accommodate. This allows for flexibility on the part of the landowner in determining the distribution of residential units on the parcel while protecting significant environmental features like open space. It encourages conservation subdivisions which keep rural lands farmed and wild-life corridors protected. Conservation subdivisions are actually less expensive to build because roads and utilities aren't spread throughout the parcel. Density based zoning results in housing patterns that resemble the current rural landscape we treasure in Pine Plains, where larger fields are next to a small cluster of houses, rather than neighborhoods having all large lots or small lots. Density based zoning will help Pine Plains avoid the rural sprawl that has overtaken southern Dutchess County.