Advantages of the conventional design are:

• The largest possible area under each homeowner's control.
• A greater average distance between houses.
• In keeping with what a high percentage of buyers think they want.

Disadvantages of the design are:

• More maintenance for each property owner.
• Neighboring houses on all sides of most homes.
• Results in extensive housing sprawl and least amount of open countryside.
• Wider, more automobile dominated and less pedestrian friendly streets, as required by many subdivision regulations.
• Higher development cost due to extension of roads and utilities to entire site.

Advantages of the conservation desing are:

• Direct physical access to inter-connected open space for trail use, other healthy outdoor recreation activity, and a variety of places for children to play.
• More natural views from each house and fewer views of other homes if houses are sited and designed so as to focus on adjacent commonly owned open space.
• Commonly owned open space and pathways that create social meeting places and opportunities for a cohesive neighborhood spirit.
• Natural environment that provides wildife habitat and undisturbed natural vegetation to absorb and slow water runoff, thereby reducing soil erosion, stream sedimentation, and flooding.
• Houses concentrated where the best house sites are located.
• Lower development costs because of shorter roads and utility distances.
• Increased sales and property values because of the appeal of homes adjacent to preserved open space or farmland.

Disadvantages of the design are:

• Less clear distinction between settlement and coutnryside.
• Less privacy due to houses being closer to side lot lines-a disadvantage which can be mitigated by siting, landscaping, and home design.

Advantages are:

• Distinct transition between traditional compact settlement and open countryside.
• The infastructure is less expensive
• Pedestrian-friendly streets are social meeting places, creating a neighborhood with a strong sense of place.
• Greatest potential for multiple land uses and mix of housing types.
• Large block of open space beyond edge of settlement area perserved.
• The open space outside the settlement area provides good wildlife habitat, and undisturbed natural vegetation that absorbs and slows water runoff, thereby reducing soil erosion, stream sedimentation, and flooding.

Disadvantages of the design are:

• Internal open space or common area directly accessible to each home site is limited.
• Less privacy due to houses being closer together.
• Extensive street layout increases development costs.

Advantages of the design are:

• A large block of open space is preserved.
• The open space provides good wildlife habitat, public recreation areas, good meeting places, and undisturbed natural vegetation that absorbs and slows water runoff, thereby reducing soil erosion, stream sedimentation, and flooding.
• Inexpensive to create.
• Reduces sprawl.
• Creates a legacy of open space for generations to come.

Disadvantages of the design are:

• Possibility of a lower profit margin.

• Homebuyers' desier for the biggest possible lot, as provided in conventional neighborhoods, might be satisfied by the extensive open space system provided in the conservation and neo-traditional alternatives.
• The conventional design creates a place just like any other place.
• Towns need to take the initiative now on long-tern planning for all the open land that's left instead of relying on the regulatory process. Otherwise, planning will be done on a parcel-by-parcel basis, and the potential for inter-connected open space will not be realized.
• Urban centers separeted by rural countryside is impossible with large lot zoning.
• People like living in a neighborhood that creates a unique sense of place, with a human scale, easy social interaction with neighbors, a good environment for kids, and no large vacuous private spaces between buildings.
• Towns, in cooperation with land trusts, could bank land, or provide money to purchase land rather than develop it.
• Towns can be proactive in tying development of the site together by establishing a framework of roads and/or a network of open spaces now.