The development pattern within Richland County’s suburban areas is undifferentiated sprawl. One subdivision leads to another and none are unique.  There is no sense that contiguous neighborhoods constitute communities or that communities could have a focus or center. The development energy that has produced this pattern could be harnessed to provide something better for suburban residents -- greater efficiency, safety, and access to open space. 

It is anticipated that areas outside of village centers will continue to develop as they have in the past. The single family detached house has been a successful building type in the Richland County suburbs, and this will continue to be the case unless and until the market demand for different products dictate otherwise.  Nonetheless some improvements are recommended for the suburban development that will continue to occur in those areas outside of the village centers. The following strategies and principles explain these recommended improved development practices.

A. Strategies and Principles

Define environmental edges to suburban development
The vision plan recommends establishing physical edges to suburban neighborhoods through open space, major roadways or other physical features. 

Figure 7-6 illustrates the principles inherent in creating physical edges to suburban development. Each suburban village center should be the focus of existing and proposed residential development that surrounds it. These surrounding areas are a “catchment area” for village center services like shopping, post offices, perhaps churches, schools, and recreational facilities. This catchment area should be bounded in some way to differentiate it from the next village catchment area. This strategy will help to differentiate these areas of sprawl and provide the basis for road network improvements that establish community connectivity within each of these village residential neighborhood units. 

There are several opportunities to create such physical edges within the suburban areas of Richland County. The riparian corridors associated with streams and creeks are an important part of this strategy. These green fingers tend to be in low-lying areas, less suitable for building than higher ground. These areas should be marked as unbuildable and used as a basis for establishing open space edges. Another strategy for edgemaking is to designate major roadways that divide residential subdivisions anyway. These could be planted in a way that allows the green space to flow into the riparian green space, thus forming a continuous system. The final opportunity to complete these edges is to incorporate existing open space or parks into the edge system.  Claiming and preserving these green community edges affords residents guaranteed open space access for hiking, bicycling, and other recreational activities. In addition it offers valuable continuity for wildlife species that require vegetated areas to thrive and circulate.

It is likely that there will be pockets of existing commercial or light industrial development outside of designated suburban village centers. These areas would most likely best become green-edge areas. This development exists by right and can not be removed. Several strategies exist for gradually decommissioning these sites. They could be purchased outright and converted to open space as a special part of the edge-making process. Incentives could be offered to owners of these developments offering them space within the village center. Another possibility is to wait until they become obsolete and then purchase them. While they exist it is important that they not proliferate. Adjacent parcels should be rezoned for open space.

The act of entering or leaving a well-defined community and village center should be celebrated by a gateway. Gateways should occur at all roadways and pathways that penetrate the green edge and enter the community. They should also mark the entrance into village center areas. They could take the form of a pylon, a bridge, a sign or some other physical device that signifies demarcation.

Extend street grid from suburban development to village center
This strategy recognizes the inherent efficiency of the traditional American grid pattern. This pattern affords numerous paths to a single destination thus spreading local traffic throughout a community rather than focusing it at a few congested places. Toward this end:

• Extend existing streets through to the village center. 
• Interconnect the existing street pattern outside of the village center in order to form a street network that functions similar to a grid system. 
• Ensure that all existing and new streets have sidewalks.

• Create walking and bicycling trails along green edges.
• The loose grid system formed by extending the street grid into the village center will provide streets with fewer automobile trips. This will increase the number of pedestrian links to the center and encourage more bicycle traffic.

The Vision recommends that new development incorporate townhouses, apartments, “granny flats” and above commercial apartments where appropriate within the fabric of the community. These types constitute higher densities than single family detached houses and thus should be strategically located nearer the village center areas. They form a good transition building type between village commercial areas and single family detached style neighborhoods.

Coordinate new public facilities with suburban village planning
New public facilities such as libraries, recreation centers and schools should be strategically located within village catchment areas to reinforce the suburban village concept.  A coordinated planning effort should be made to insure that these facilities are not sited in areas that will induce sprawl.

New suburban development should incorporate Best Management Practices (BMPs) for stormwater management
Many projects well into the planning and approval stages are located in the recharge area in the Sand Hills.  The total number of dwelling units for these projects exceeds 15,000 units.  This represents some three square miles of paving and roofs, not to mention associated soil disturbance for some additional ten to fifteen square miles.  Further projects will add to these impacts, with the result that groundwater recharge and surface flooding could be profoundly affected by this development.  These effects will eliminate most of the structural habitat essential for healthy streams. 

Only with the use of Best Management Practices can the adverse hydrological impacts from suburban development be mitigated.  At the foremost, infiltration of relatively clean roof runoff should be integrated into the required stormwater detention strategy.  If used extensively in favorable locations such as the Sand Hills, this BMP could recharge most of the rainfall needed to maintain original conditions.  For more polluted roadway runoff, overland collection and filtration of runoff is a well-established BMP, which should be followed with wetland retention basins.  Pervious paving may also be a viable tool to promote recharge.  These BMPs will promote recharge, and greatly reduce the extent of toxic pollutants and flooding from developed sites.

New suburban development should incorporate preservation of Riparian Forest Buffers (RFBs)
RFB policies should require that existing riparian forests be preserved, and replaced where absent.  To provide many of the benefits of forested streams where upland impacts are minor, RFB policies should provide for a forested buffer at least several trees back from the stream banks and its associated wetlands.  In general, the wider, the better, particularly in agricultural areas where sediment losses are greater.  RFB policies for development sites could incorporate the benefits of installing RFBs in key agricultural areas offsite in a process similar to that used in wetlands mitigation.

New suburban development should incorporate Conservation Site Design
In many ways, the health of streams reflects the health of the watershed.  This is a prime reason for preservation of hydrology through use of BMPs, and the preservation of riparian habitats through use of RFBs.  A conservation approach to site design further supports these tools to provide a sustainable development approach for the next century.

The Town and Country Model incorporates the main elements of conservation design by clustering dwelling units with minimal paving per unit.  Where complemented by minimal ground disturbance of open ground, extensive reforestation, and buffering with ample open space, this systems approach substantially reduces the typical increase in runoff at its source.  Instead of rapid conveyance through pipes, runoff is then slowly conveyed through a series of overland swales into extended retention wetland ponds.  In slowing down the velocity of runoff, flood peaks are further reduced.

By preserving the essential components of the landscape at the outset, and laying out strategies to mitigate the inevitable impacts of development during the design process, many of the adverse effects of development can be accommodated by the landscape.

A. Implementation

Restrictions on development of streams and other environmental conditions at village edge
The County should establish guidelines for riparian corridors. Specific dimensions and other criteria should be set in order to define these stream corridors. A program should then be established to either 1) purchase these riparian areas and preserve them in perpetuity or 2) purchase their development rights and transfer them into nearby village centers. For those riparian areas already developed, the County should set criteria that will allow them to retain their riparian landscape quality and function and then initiate a riparian stewardship program in conjunction with landowners.

Riparian areas proliferate in Richland County but not always in ways that can help define suburban communities completely. In order to augment these edge systems it will be necessary to identify and target specific open space parcels for purchase or transfer of development rights programs.

Purchase of open space between villages
A county program should be initiated to purchase strategically located open space parcels. Criteria should be developed to determine eligibility for this program. This should be done by mapping the desired community edges throughout the suburban areas, identifying how existing open space can contribute to the community edge, what riparian areas can contribute to the edge, and what gaps remain to be acquired in order to complete the edge system.

Transfer of development rights from open space to village center
Similar to the purchase of open space program, a transfer of development rights could also be an option for preserving strategic open space parcels in the edge system. This program has the advantage of transferring development from the open space sending area, thus preserving it, to a village center receiving area, thus increasing the permitted density there. This strategy would reinforce the village center concept in that regard. The transfer of development rights program could also operate between owners and developers, with an independent open space trust administering its particulars. 

Conservation Easements
The final recommendation for preserving open space is through conservation easements.  The approach seeks less costly ways to preserve land than the outright purchase option.  A County program should be established to solicit, coordinate and administer land donations or long-term leases of strategic open space parcels.