To conserve the natural resources and rural character of the Town by encouraging development in the most appropriate locations and by strictly limiting building in areas where it would conflict with the Town's rural pattern and scale of settlement;

To minimize negative environmental impacts of development, especially in visually and environmentally sensitive areas such as higher elevations, scenic viewsheds, steep slopes, erodible soils, stream corridors, wetlands, floodplains, and active farmlands;

To protect existing wooded areas, scenic views, ridgelines, agricultural land, waterways, groundwater and surface water supplies, ecological systems, wetlands, wildlife habitat, and natural vegetation, and to maintain large areas of contiguous open space in their current undeveloped state in order to preserve the predominantly open and rural character of the Town;

To preserve and protect lands and buildings that are historically significant;

To enhance the aesthetic and architectural quality of the entire community and to maintain its present natural beauty;

To encourage agriculture to continue and prosper because of its importance to the local economy and to the preservation of open space;

To encourage other economic activities that require large areas of contiguous open space, such as forestry, recreation, resort use, and tree farming, as well as the support services and industries that add value to these uses, such as wood products, food processing, tourist facilities, and equipment sales and repair;

To integrate different types of housing and different kinds of land uses in traditional village and hamlet centers laid out in the manner described in Appendixes I and II of this chapter,[1] in order to encourage social and economic interaction and pedestrian activity, and to reduce unnecessary automobile traffic;

To provide a range of housing opportunities for all segments of the local population with due consideration for regional housing needs;

To protect residences from nuisances, odors, noise, pollution, and other unsightly, obtrusive, and offensive land uses and activities;

To locate commercial and other nonresidential uses in a manner that is convenient to residences, minimizes use of automobiles, and provides freedom for landowners to make beneficial economic use of their land, provided that such uses are not harmful to neighboring properties;

To improve transportation facilities in areas designated for intensive settlement and maintain a network of smaller country roads in areas designated for the protection of open space, agriculture, steep slopes and rural character;

To reduce traffic congestion on major roads by establishing a pattern of settlement and circulation that reduces reliance on automobiles and provides alternative routes between destinations;

To encourage the conservation of energy and the appropriate use of solar and other renewable energy resources;

To regulate building density in order to concentrate population in appropriate locations while allowing reasonable privacy for residences, ensure access to light and air, conserve open space, facilitate the prevention and fighting of fires, minimize the cost of municipal services, and accomplish the other purposes enumerated in this chapter;

To provide a flexible system of land use regulation that enables the Town to grow, while preserving its most important natural, historic, architectural, and cultural features; and

To base such flexible land use regulations on the unique characteristics of the landscape, the needs of the people of the Town, the impact of proposed land uses on the natural and human environment, and the purposes articulated in this chapter and in the Master Plan without undue reliance on rigid use and dimensional standards, and to avoid a suburban pattern of development characterized by uniform lots laid out in a geometric pattern across the landscape.