Under conventional residential development practices, minimum lot sizes are established by zoning ordinances. Under these requirements, a piece of property is subdivided into as many lots as allowed. This results in suburban development where all land is committed to individually owned parcels. The objective of this thesis is to defend the preservation of open space as a necessary component of rural residential development and to establish a set of criteria that are fundamental to open space design. Concerns for developers, planners, and homeowners in response to the open space preservation movement are identified and addressed. In addition, the three major alternative development approaches, in which the preservation of open space is a fundamental priority, are detailed. From these alternative development approaches, a list of criteria are developed to be used in the evaluation or preparation of open space site designs. A 96 acre site in the Tom’s Creek Basin of Blacksburg, Montgomery County, Virginia is used as a case study for the preparation of an open space site design that fulfills the requirements of a proposed rural residential zoning ordinance for Blacksburg. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning