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TOWN OF CHARLESTOWN
GROWTH MANAGEMENT PLAN, JUNE 2000
In order to further the land use
principles set forth in the Town of Charlestown Comprehensive
Plan 1991, Charlestown has implemented a three phase
Growth Management Plan and is now continuing its efforts
toward controlling growth in a fourth phase.
Phase I - Growth Cap based on
available seats in schools, Adopted February 2000
The combination of a rise in the
growth rate of elementary school aged children, increasing
numbers of building permits issued since 1991, and increasing
numbers of subdivisions has led the Town council and
Planing Commission of Charlestown to set in place an
ordinance to link controlled growth of residential housing
units with the capacity of the Cariho Regional School
District. Read more about Phase
I
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Water Tower at Kenyon Mills |
Phase II - Impact Fee, Adopted April
2000
Because per capita property taxes generate less than the costs
of per capita services and with dwindled state and federal
dollars to subsidize these services, Impact Fees have
become an alternative method to financing municipal services.
Read more about Phase II
Phase III - Zoning Ordinance of Residential
Cluster Subdivisions, Adopted May, 2000
This phase amends Charlestown's zoning
regulations to the effect that any subdivision of more than
six lots requires cluster development. Cluster development
places houses near each other where lots adjoin, leaving the
rest of the lot undeveloped. Read more about Phase
III
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Phase
IV - Open Space Acquisition Plan, Currently Underway
As another tool to selectively limit
growth, Charlestown is in the process of prioritizing
parcels to acquire as openspace. As an aide to this
process, a participatory web survey which gathered public
opinion on open space and protection priorities of particular
sites was created by Justin
Huxol. Also Matthew
Amengual has done a study which projects potential
growth to buildout in Charlestown and proposes a GIS-based
scoring system to help guide openspace policies.
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Horse Farm on Klondike Road |
In November of 2000 the Town passed an
open space bond issue of 2 million dollars. This money will
be used to acquire open space and add to its already approximately
29% of protected lands. Here you will find more information
about Open Space in Charlestown.
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