Managing Growth Wisely — Part 2

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. As a person whose trade is to use computers for analyzing and making maps I can verify that, like pictures, a map is worth a thousand words.

A few years ago the Doolittle Lake Company (DLC) of Norfolk approached me to make a map of their lands. According to the mission of the organization I work for, the Housatonic Valley Association, the projects I tackle should be relevant either to the environmental health or the natural character of the Housatonic River watershed. Producing a map for the DLC does not fit these criteria precisely. Doolittle Lake actually lies just east of the Housatonic River watershed, and we work more with land trusts and town commissions than with private associations. On the other hand, most of Norfolk does lie within our watershed, and I instinctively felt that how DLC chose to develop their lands fit with our environmental health and natural character criteria.

I digitized all the parcels owned by DLC and their residents and overlaid the result on a topographic map (digitizing converts data on paper maps into digital form for computers). The result was striking. Here was high-priced development that showed amazing foresight, years before studies poured in revealing the folly of maximizing the spread of residential lots. This development clustered small residential lots around the feature of attraction, Doolittle Lake. This left the bulk of DLC property as open space for all the members to enjoy. The way Doolittle Lake was developed was good for the members, good for the natural character of the community, and good for environmental health.

I had no regrets about doing this project, although it was outside our watershed. As a resident of Norfolk I was proud that such enlightened development could take place, essentially before its time. Not many communities can boast a model for high-priced development from which town commissions and future developers can learn.

A major development proposal now faces both the towns of Norfolk and North Canaan, on land known as the Yale Farm. Like Doolittle Lake, this proposal involves high-priced development around a feature of attraction, in this case a proposed 150-acre golf course. In a previous article [Managing Growth Wisely, December 20] I made the case for why Norfolk would benefit more from affordable development than high-priced development. I can still hope the developers might be interested in providing affordable development, but development that provides the greatest benefit to the community might not be a high priority for them. They may only consider high-priced development options because that is how they can get the most money.

No matter. If the DLC could provide such a model of enlightened, high-priced development decades ago, certainly a current development proposal can benefit from this, and perhaps add a few enlightened touches of its own. For the Yale Farm proposal the feature of attraction will be a golf course, rather than a lake, but the residential lots can still be clustered around this attraction with plenty of land left dedicated for open space. Such open space helps maintain the natural character of a working landscape, and the environmental health of wetlands and critical species in the area. What a boon indeed to have the DLC model for enlightening the town and the Yale Farm developers.

The Yale Farm developers, however, appear to be slow learners. The maps for the development proposal show large-acre residential lots spread to the fullest extent of the land known as the Yale Farm. In my previous article I mentioned how studies have shown that spread out, large-acre lots ultimately fail to alleviate the tax burdens in suburbs. Instead, they tend to increase commercial strip development, increase traffic congestion, decrease open space, and degrade resources. Their maps confirm what the words of the developers previously betrayed: that they have not been enlightened by the DLC model for high-priced development, and seem determined to repeat the approach to development that has contributed so much to suburban sprawl. One wonders how long the developers and associates of the Yale Farm proposal will remain in the Dark Ages; I suppose as long as they have financial incentive to do so.

Ah, but a map is worth a thousand words. As a person who works closely with maps, I tend to overlook just what an impact they may have. While the full impact of the Yale Farm proposal maps initially was lost on me, I since have witnessed how upsetting these maps are to other people, people who had not thought much about the proposal until they saw these maps. "They made my stomach feel queasy," was one response. Ironically, these are people who have not benefited, like I have, from seeing a map of the DLC model for development. Even without the DLC map for comparison, these people find the Yale Farm maps worth a thousand words, not all of which are printable.

The Housatonic Valley Association plans to digitize the Yale Farm maps. When this occurs we will provide our own map that compares the proposed Yale Farm development with the current DLC development. I strongly suggest anyone who has a stake in the Yale Farm proposal (which includes just about everyone in Norfolk or North Canaan) to take a look at this comparison. The contrast in maps will tell a better story than the words of this article can.

Mr. Sinclair is GIS Manager for the Housatonic Valley Association.