The whole area is really pretty, and I'd hate to see it scarred. But Baker believes there is more the county could do to encourage developers to choose appropriate places for subdivisions. I' d like to see more extension of water and sewer. Water and sewer are major costs to developers and help from the county Public Service Authority to cover those costs would be a strong lure for development where the county would like to see it. Limits on subdivisions in the most rural areas of the county may encourage developers to create cluster developments which leave large portions of the parcels undeveloped.
Cluster developments gather houses close together on less than half the land in the parcel.
The remainder of the land must be kept in agricultural production or treated as a park or conservation area. It's going to have to be the perfect piece of land to set aside half of it as green space and cluster the rest of it. One other strategy the county is exploring is to allocate money, and perhaps receive matching funds from the state, to purchase development rights from landowners. If you take somebody's rights away, you're going to have to pay for it. That limits the amount of land that you can put under the protective blanket.