1. BUILDERS FOR THE BAY: Building Consensus for Low-Impact Development

2. What is Builders for the Bay? Officially signed on December 3, 2001, Builders for the Bay is an agreement among the Center for Watershed Protection, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, and the National Association of Home Builders to pursue 12 local site planning roundtables in the Chesapeake Bay watershed over the next several years. The local site planning roundtables are a consensus process through which jurisdictions actually change existing local subdivision codes and ordinances to be more environmentally friendly and economically prudent. By making it easier for communities to implement Better Site Design, the goal is to ultimately preserve and enhance more natural areas; reduce and manage the amount of stormwater that flows off of a development site; and save developers money.

3. Better Site Design (BSD) is a package of environmentally-sensitive development techniques that can help reduce the environmental impacts of new commercial and residential developments. What is Better Site Design?

4. Better Site Design Creates Better… 1.Places for Cars Overall goal: Reduce “habitat” for cars without significantly reducing mobility 2.Places for People Overall goal: Minimize the impact of lot development while maintaining or increasing property values and quality of life 3.Places for Nature Overall goal: Preserve and increase the beauty and value of forests and streams in developed areas

5. The 22 model development principles that make up Better Site Design are the product of the Center for Watershed Protection’s 1997… National Site Planning Roundtable which convened a group of national experts to develop viable techniques for environmentally sensitive development.

14. 1.What do you see as the primary obstacles in this region to better site design, as promoted by Builders for the Bay? 2.What would be the crucial elements of a successful “Builders for the Bay”-type program in the Upstate? 3.What jurisdiction do you think would be the best place to start, and why? A Few Questions to Ponder…