Structures

06 Apr 2019 - Tansy Arron-Walker

An overview of structure plans and layout.

At present there are no structures on the land.

We will be building a home and will also want structures for hay and machinery storage, animal shelter, workshop space, and potentially a greenhouse.

Given the slope and aspect of the land and the water and access routes we previously marked, we can make some decisions about useful house and barn sites.

My criteria for the house site were:

• Not in a flood plain.
• Slight (<5%) south facing slope.
• Not too close to neighbors or the road. Private.
• Ease of access from the road, and from the house to the rest of the land.
• Potential for an awesome view.

Eliminating the flood plain:

Eliminating areas that are too steep:

Eliminating north facing slopes:

Eliminating areas too close to neighbors or the road:

Our planning commission hearing allowed us to build anywhere that wasn’t defined as “prime farmland” by the USDA soil map. (Note: “Prime Farmland If Drained” is allowable under their definition, so long as we haven’t drained it.) In the below image, Red is “Not Prime Farmland”, Teal is “Prime Farmland if Drained” and Green is “Prime Farmland”.

Having eliminated most of the land from consideration, we could look along access routes for sites with the potential for a great view, and settled on this:

Barn Placement

Criteria for the barn were similar:

• Not in a flood plain.
• Slight (<5%) south facing slope or flat (<2% slope)
• Not too close to neighbors or the road.
• Ease of access from the road, from the house, and to the rest of the land.

And we ended up with this: