CLUSTERS CENTRALIZE SERVICES PUD CONCEPT MOST EFFICIENT.(Business)

Byline: Mark S.R. Suchecki Business writer

Planned unit developments, such as Warren County's Earltown, Hiland Park and West Mountain Resort, commonly aim to combine residential and recreational facilities to use large tracts of land with utmost efficiency.

Tennis courts, golf courses, boat launches, swimming pools, even riding stables, are among the amenities attracting increasing numbers of homebuyers to PUDs around the Capital District and the rest of the country.

This planning mechanism - largely come of age in the last decade locally - has also been applied to mixes of residential, office and commercial uses which can be constructed in a single or linked series of structures.

"The main advantages of a planned unit development are generally the services and amenities they can offer," said Walter …