WHAT IS DEVELOPMENT SUITABILITY ANALYSIS:

• A technical strategy to safeguard critical resources and direct future development in locations where development is most desirable. The mapping product of this strategy identifies an area’s suitability for development based on goals for the regions.

• Goals for the region were established through an intensive public participation process and state the desires of the citizens that the natural resources in the region will remain in tact and future growth will protect and enhance the natural environment and stimulate and enhance the economic and social environments.

Step 1. Map existing environmental, socio-economic and infrastructure resources in the region, define the criteria (rules) to rate the potential for each to constrain or foster development (see model variable spreadsheet).

Step 2. Using GIS analysis, create data layers representing "rules" defined in Step 1.

Step 3. Overlay the model variables within each category (Environmental, Socio-economic and infrastructure) to create three resultant coverages (data layers) showing a range of development suitability from low to high.

Step 4. Overlay the three resultant coverages created in Step 4 and SUM the "Suitability Rating" field so the final coverage has values from 3 to 9. An area with a composite value of 9 means it is highly suitable for development and an area with a composite value of 3, the lowest rating, means that it is the least suitable for development. Reclassify the ranking values into three ranges representative of high, medium and low suitability for development.

Step 5: Eliminate areas from the coverage created in Step 5 that are already developed and any other areas where development will be prohibited (i.e. State Game Lands, State Parks, State Forests and Conservation Easements).

Step 6: Model re-assessment. This step involves a review of the final resultant coverage produced in Step 5. The subcommittee will consider ideas to improve the model by redefining the model variables and then retesting. The introduction of new model variables will be discussed as a strategy and will not be included in developing the gross development suitability map. Some additional spatial operations on the resultant coverage produced in Step 5 may be part of the process to identify general locations for future land use.

Example of additional spatial analysis:

• Identify all the areas with a high suitability ranking that are within ½ mile of signalized intersections and have average daily traffic volumes.
• Identify all parcels in the region that are within a ½ mile radius of the airport, have access to public sewer or water connections and are at least 1.5 acres in size.

• Environmental
• Sensitive lands (Note: wetlands and 100 year floodplains – assigned very low suitability rank)
• Proximity to Public wells
• Fragmentation Sensitivity
• Wildlife Habitat
• PNDI Sites
• Natural Heritage Sites
• Forested Ridge tops
• Water Quality by Curve Number
• Stream Buffers
• Proximity to State Gamelands, Parks and Forests
• Proximity to Ponds and Lakes
• Major Sinkhole locations
• Proximity to Quarry Operations

• Socio-Economic
• Agricultural Security Areas and Proposed Agricultural Easements
• Prime agricultural soils
• Soils limitations for building construction
• Soils limitations for on-lot septic systems
• Proximity to residential neighborhoods.
• Topography – steep slope areas

• Infrastructure
• Availability of public water ( includes proposed utilities in 5 & 10 year plans)
• Availability of public sewer (includes proposed utilities in 5 & 10 year plans)
• Proximity to I-99 interchanges
• Proximity to Limited Access Roadways
• Proximity to Major Arterial
• Proximity to Minor Arterial
• Proximity to Major Collector