Page 34 - parks-master-plan

During the environmental inventory, it was noted that Dublin exhibits a characteristic known as habitat fragmentation in its woodland habitats. The exceptions to this are the riparian areas along the Scioto River.

The identified fragmentation highlights the importance of protecting the remaining areas of forested lands and making every reasonable attempt to enlarge these areas and link them with other fragmented habitats. This complements the recognized benefits of greenways and habitat corridors. If contiguous links cannot be made between the disparate areas, the ability to secure intermediary lands that serve as “stepping stones” is recognized as beneficially serving as an intermediate phase in establishing comprehensive greenway networks.

The Natural Resource Inventory resulted in a suitability model developed in a GIS modeling environment. The suitability model allowed for the recognition of the following:

• Identification of land areas more suitable to park lands and/or limited use as opposed to development

This suitability model helps guide land use decisions defined in the Community Plan. This model highlights areas of the greatest

environmental importance and identifies areas in which development is least likely to have adverse ecological impacts.

This model should be used during the development review process in conjunction with the criteria defined in the Community Plan’s Development Suitability (Chapter 2) and Stream Corridor Protection (Chapter 9).

This suitability model is a guide to establish corridors, as indicated by the higher value areas, which may prove beneficial for wildlife movement and create additional pedestrian connections.

Larger, continuous tracts of land that should be investigated as potential sites for larger parks or recreation areas are identified by the high-to-mid values.

These areas, especially when compared to the locations of existing parks and forested land cover areas, form a collection of natural areas