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Finally,
here's a land-use plan that combats the loss of farmland to
ever-growing suburbs. By grouping buildings into compact
Neighborhoods (such as the small black triangles in the center of the
drawing), the plan achieves a density of over 14,000 people per
square mile while leaving 75% of the land available for cultivation.
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CONTINUED BELOW)

The
basic unit is the Town, the yellow-and-white triangle one mile on a
side. Each Town is divided into 16 smaller triangles 400 meters
on a side. Only the ten triangles shown in color are
developed. They're called Villages; one is shown in green.
The other six white triangles, each containing 17.3 acres, can be
used for small agricultural fields.
Each
Village is likewise subdivided into 16 smaller triangles: ten
Neighborhoods and six one-acre gardens. A neighborhood, 100
meters on a side, contains one or more multi-story buildings for
apartments, condominiums, retail stores, and so on. It is
designed for 100 residents.
Therefore,
a Village of ten Neighborhoods has a population of 1,000 (green
triangle), and a Town of ten Villages has a population of
10,000. Ten Towns are grouped together to form a 100,000-population
Borough, four miles on a side (slightly larger than this
drawing). The Borough also includes six large 277-acre farms
interspersed among its ten Towns.
Within
the seven square miles of the triangular Borough, (10/16)3
or less than 25% of the land is used for Neighborhoods and their
buildings. The rest is fields and gardens. |