Complete Report - Yale University

32OPTIMIZING PRIVATE LAND CONSERVATION AND PUBLIC LAND USE PLANNING⁄REQUISITION●●●●membership to influence government to make a decision based onconservation.Helping with capital campaigns to raise capital for lands that need to bepurchased.Providing polling or convening meetings to gauge the interest in thepurchase of a resource or the implementation of a conservation plan.Educating the public about the importance of conservation of priority sites.Crossing the political jurisdictions that often fragment and segment localplanning efforts and priority land acquisition. For great examples ofprotecting across jurisdictional borders see the New Jersey Highlands project(http://www.state.nj.us/njhighlands/), and the Colombia River GorgeProject (http://www.gorgefriends.org).During the planning process, land trusts and other land conservationorganizations can also influence local governments to adopt requirements thatpromote conservation and land protection such as conservation and environmentaloverlay zones. However, many comprehensive land use plans across the country havealready done so. The following is a sampling of adopted requirements that promoteconservation.●●●In one of the more well-known comprehensive plan requirements, each ofOregon’s cities is required to implement an urban growth boundary (UGB),designating undeveloped land that can accommodate the city’s futuregrowth. A UGB in an Oregon city creates an urban growth area that encirclesthe city, containing land that is not within the city’s limits but under countyjurisdiction. Planning between local governments is coordinated throughurban growth management agreements that clarify which local governmentwill administer land use regulations in the urban growth area, how the areashould be zoned until it is urbanized, what standards for public services andfacilities should be applied there, and what interim controls should be usedto protect the growth area’s potential for development. However, this didlead to a referendum that required the government to pay for any regulatorytaking, which in turn lead to a counter referendum. These topics arediscussed more thoroughly in the subsequent section “Land Conservation &Permanence.”In Nebraska, the City of Lincoln and Lancaster County have adopted a JointComprehensive Plan containing an Environmental Resources chapter thatrequires developers to take into account factors such as topography, climate,soils, watersheds, groundwater, and floodplains in their proposals.In Delaware, county comprehensive plans are required to include aconservation element for the conservation, use, and protection of naturalresources in the area.yale school of forestry & environmental studies