The purpose of this subchapter is to guide development in steeply sloped or unstable hillside areas consistent with the Cornerstone 2020 Comprehensive Plan guidelines, to protect natural areas and features, and to locate development, where possible, in areas that do not have severe environmental limitations. This subchapter intends to regulate hillside development in order to protect life and property from hazards due to slope, unstable soils, earth movement, and other geologic and hydrologic hazards. More specifically, these regulations are intended to:
(A) Maintain property values and avoid property damage due to development of steep slopes and unstable soils;
(B) Incorporate current design, landscape architecture, architecture, and civil engineering practices to preserve, enhance, and/or promote the stability and environmental quality of hillside areas;
(C) Preserve or enhance the beauty of the landscape by encouraging the maximum retention of natural topographic features, including slopes, ridge lines, vistas, and natural plant communities;
(D) Promote a safe means of ingress and egress for vehicular and pedestrian traffic to and within hillside areas while at the same time minimizing the scarring effects of hillside street construction;
(E) Encourage imaginative and innovative building techniques to create buildings suited to natural hillside surroundings; and
(F) Enhance neighborhood character and community identity associated with the county’s hillsides.
(LDC § 4.7.1)