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82 Town of Aurora prime farmland soil, active agricultural parcels, and significant natural features such as waterways, scenic views, mature wooded areas, and other parcels identified by the Town’s Open Space Committee. • Promote trail connectivity between parks, neighborhoods, and regional systems like the Erie Cattaraugus Rail Trail. • Incorporate wayfinding signage and interpretive elements to enhance public understanding of the Town’s natural and cultural resources. • Encourage native plantings and pollinator habitats in open space landscapes to enhance biodiversity. • Collaborate with conservation organizations and regional partners to secure funding and expand protected open space. Hamlet Overlay The Hamlet Overlay (HO) land use designation would follow the same regulations as laid out by the West Falls Hamlet Overlay, with the addition of extending it to include several parcels north of the existing overlay as well as the Hamlet of Blakeley which is located in the eastern half of the town. The overlay district is designed to serve as a rural service hamlet that preserves the character and quality of area, including through the adoption of architectural guidelines to control aesthetics, landscaping, and connective features. The overlay will encourage the development of uses that are in harmony with the surrounding area, improve the visual character of the area, promote walkability, protect adjoining residential uses, and enhance the area by encouraging service-oriented uses. Preferred Uses: • Retail, services, and restaurants • Entertainment and cultural facilities • Offices • Mixed-use buildings • Single-family attached and detached, ADUs, duplexes, and small apartments • Civic, community, and institutional facilities Other Considerations: • Allow new developments to conduct a transportation demand study (TDS) in order to obtain a variance on the reduction of minimum parking spaces required. • Have buildings face the street. • Promote sidewalk development. • Encourage streetscape amenities such as street trees, decorative lighting, benches, and trash cans. • Consider multi-modal opportunities to connect the hamlets to the rest of the Town. • Develop building design standards to be consistent with the historic and traditional character of the hamlets. Cluster Development Overlay The Cluster Development Overlay (CDO) is a floating overlay designation intended to encourage flexible, conservation-oriented residential development in areas where public sewer service connection is available. It may be applied—through both Planning Board review and adoption by the Town Board following a public hearing and compliance with all applicable environmental review procedures—to residentially designated areas, such as Neighborhood Residential or Rural Residential, where the underlying land use supports housing but where the preservation of environmental resources is a priority. Adoption of the CDO onto a specific property requires the submission of a rezoning application, review for consistency with the Town’s comprehensive plan, and formal amendment of the Town’s zoning map by the Town Board. The CDO allows residential units to be grouped—or “clustered”—on a portion of a development site, permitting the remainder of the parcel to be permanently preserved as open space, farmland, and/or recreational area. This overlay should also consider adding a regulation that requires the developer to provide funding for trails that would connect the neighborhood to existing parks and other neighborhoods