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Southern Ulster Times, Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Preserving Marlborough
Cornell students conduct a study of the town’s natural resources
By MARK REYNOLDS
[email protected]
In October a group of undergraduate
students from Cornell University, under
Professor George Frantz of the College
of Architecture, Art and Planning,
spent two days compiling an inventory
of the natural resources of the town.
Last Saturday they returned and gave a
preliminary report of their findings to the
community in a power point presentation
at the Milton Train Station.
The presentation focused on providing,
“the building blocks for comprehensive
land-use and conservation [and ways] to
allow natural resource information to be
included in local planning and zoning” for
the Town of Marlborough.
The students defined the town’s
scenic resources as, “routes, landscapes
and places that are publicly accessible
Last Saturday, Cornell University student Abdul Rahmann Al-Mani gave a power point presen-
tation at the Milton Train Station entitled “Marlborough: Telling the Story” on ways the town
can save and manage their natural resources.
[with] features and vistas of all kinds that
contribute to a community’s character
and aesthetic quality and sometimes
provide
tourism-related
economic
opportunities.”
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The students further identified
Marlborough’s assets by looking at
historic sites, farmlands, the town’s
ecological value, visibility from a public
space, the borders of high trafficked
roads and their frontage ratio, a land’s
proximity to already preserved parcels,
the size and value of a parcel and the
parcel grade. They created a color map of
nearly every parcel in town and attached
a numerical priority score to each of
them.
The presentation suggested several
conservation strategies for Marlborough;
the creation of a hamlet floating zone
district to reflect design and development
patterns of a traditional hamlet district
while preserving the architectural
character of the area. On the historic
preservation side of the equation, the
students advised the town to enlist
the help of the National and State
Historic Registry in evaluating their
older buildings and erecting signage to
encourage residents and visitors to stop
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