Conservation development, also known as
conservation design, is a controlled-growth
land use development that adopts the principle for allowing limited
sustainable development while protecting the area's natural environmental features in perpetuity, including preserving
open space landscape and vista, protecting
farmland or natural
habitats for wildlife, and maintaining the character of rural communities. A conservation development is usually defined as a project that dedicates a minimum of 50 percent of the total development parcel as
open space. The management and ownership of the land are often formed by the partnership between private land owners, land-use conservation organizations and
local government. It is a growing trend in many parts of the country, particularly in the western
United States. In the eastern U.S., conservation design has been promoted by some
state and local governments as a technique to help preserve
water quality.