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drawn environmentally sensitive designation was not as significant as now. During preparation of the county's current comprehensive plan, more time and effort were spent delineating the boundaries of environmentally sensitive lands. As a result, the 43 acre property was given a split land use designation, with the west dike of the property's mosquito impoundment being the boundary between wetlands and uplands. Consequently, the subject property, west of the dike, was designated M-2, Medium -Density Residential -2 (up to 10 units/acre), while the eastern portion of the 43 acre tract was designated as conservation. - Zoning History Currently, zoning in the county is based on an adopted comprehensive plan. That, however, has not always been the case. Although zoning was established in the county in 1957, the county's first comprehensive plan was not adopted until 1976. Not until 1985 was zoning made to conform to the county's plan. Prior to 1985, the entire 43 acre parcel was zoned R-lA, Single - Family. That zoning district required that all conforming lots be at least 10,000 square feet in size. The maximum density for the R-lA district, therefore, was approximately 4 units/acre. Until 1978, the Vista Gardens property to the south of the subject site was also zoned R-lA. At that time, the Vista property was, at the request of the owner, rezoned to R -2C, a district allowing multiple -family development up to 12 units/acre. In 1985, a countywide rezoning effort was undertaken to make zoning in the county correspond to the 1982 comprehensive plan's land use designations. Because the 1982 plan designated the eastern portion of the 43 acre parcel as environmentally sensitive, and because the county's policy was to draw zoning district lines consistent with property boundaries whenever possible, the entire parcel was down - zoned from R-lA to RS -1. The RS -1 zoning district allows residential development at a density of up to 1 unit/acre. That 1 unit/acre density was consistent with the then applicable 1 unit/acre density of the environmentally sensitive land use designation. In 1991, after adoption of the current comprehensive plan, the county adopted Land Development Regulations (LDRs) which created the Conservation zoning districts. Those conservation districts apply to environmentally important areas. Although not depicted on the county's zoning atlas, these districts are established when development is proposed for a site designated as conservation on the comprehensive plan. The boundaries of the conservation zoning district are then based on a site specific environmental survey of the property. In this case, aerial photographs and other information indicate that the impoundment dike is the western boundary of both the wetlands and the conservation land use designation. Therefore, land east of the dike would be deemed to be zoned Con -2, Conservation District (up to 1 unit/40 acres), while land west of the dike, the subject property, would be eligible to be zoned consistent with the M-2 (up to 10 units per acre) land use designation established by the comprehensive plan. This information is important because it indicates that the subject property is currently zoned RS -1 because of a past broad brush approach to designating environmentally sensitive land. Since the underlying comprehensive plan designation is M-2, the subject FEBRUARY 7, 1995 61 BOOK�� 4. ,