The land strip, under an agreement with the Town of East Hampton, was designated a scenic reserve, a sort of no man's land, in line with town efforts to cluster homes and preserve open space around them.
The remaining land, according to preliminary company plans, would be developed partly with 46 single-family homes on roughly one-acre lots and partly with a more dense housing plan -- possibly a condominium or small-lot cluster homes.
Cluster homes and condominiums are forbidden; lots for new developments must be at least 10 acres.
These organizations hold group activities for the elderly, assign volunteers to befriend elders living in homes for the aged, cluster homes and private homes, and also keep an eye on isolated and at-risk elders.
The so-called Silicon Spa is one of the UK's leading games clusters, home to firms like Codemasters, Full Fat and Free Style Games.
The idea is by clustering homes together to maximize open space, one can conserve urban biodiversity.
Zoning laws can be adapted to encourage clustering homes on one part of a parcel and dedicating the rest as open space.
Measures under consideration include clustering homes on smaller lots, incorporating plans that would allow for apartments over stores and allowing accessory apartments that would permit a resident to add an apartment to an existing home.
Opinions differ about what to expect when the clock runs out on the moratorium the Town Board imposed in August 2002, but there are indications that new rules -- requiring open space, clustered homes and affordable housing in subdivisions -- will curb development pressures.
The overarching objective of clustering homes is to reduce the ecological footprint of the human habitat and provide a breathing space for other species, thus enriching biodiversity (Fig. 10).
