Transfer Development Rights

Transfer
Development
Rights
Noelle Higgins
What areTDRs?
Transfer of development rights (TDR) is a market based technique that encourages the voluntary transfer of growth from places where a community would like to
see less development (called sending areas) to places where a community would
like to see more development (called receiving areas). The sending areas can be
environmentally-sensitive properties, open space, agricultural land, wildlife habitat,
historic landmarks or any other places that are important to a community. The receiving areas should be places that the general public has agreed are appropriate
for extra development because they are close to jobs, shopping, schools, transportation and other urban services. (Source:Pruetz, AICP, 1999).
farmlands
environmentally sensitive sites
cultural sites
Definitions
Examples: National
TDR Programs
New York, NY became the first community in the United States to adopt
TDR provisions when it approved its
Landmarks Preservation Law in 1968.
According to John Bredin, writing in the
November 1998 issue of the PAS Memo,
the City adopted a new TDR program in
1998 designed to prevent the demolition
or conversion of live-performance theaters
in the Broadway theater district.
Montgomery County, MD has
the most successful TDR program in
the country. County had permanently
preserved over 38,000 acres of farmland
using TDRs.
New Jersey Pinelands, NJ, adopted
in 1980, is the most ambitious TDR program in the country, encompassing one
million acres of land and allowing transfers between 60 different municipalities.
The total area preserved through severance increased to 15,768 acres as of the
end of 1997.
source: (Source. Bredin,2000)
Development Rights
Land ownership is commonly described as consisting of a bundle of different rights.
Usually when someone purchases a parcel they purchase the entire bundle of rights
that might be associated with the land. Owning a development right means that you
own the right to build a structure on the parcel. Development rights may be voluntarily
separated and sold off from the land.
Sending Sites
Parcels that have productive agricultural or forestry values, provide critical wildlife
habitat or provide other public benefits such as open space, regional trail connectors
or urban separators. Preservation of these types of areas has been identified as a
goal of King County. By selling the development rights, landowners may voluntarily
achieve an economic return on their property while maintaining it in farming, forestry,
habitat or parks and open space in perpetuity.
Receiving Site
Development rights that are sent off of a Owning a development right means that
you own the right to build a structure on the receiving parcel. Development rights
may be voluntarily separated and sold off from the land (sending site) and placed on
a receiving site. A receiving site is a parcel of land located where the existing services and infrastructure can accommodate additional growth. Landowners may place
development rights onto a receiving site either by transferring them from a qualifying
parcel they own, by purchasing the development rights from a qualified sending site
landowner, or purchasing them from the King County TDR Bank. With transferred
development rights a landowner may develop the receiving site at a higher density
than is otherwise allowed by the base zoning.
Source : http://dnr.metrokc.gov/wlr/tdr/definitions.htm
1 |TDR
Local Precedents
Seattle (4/19/2004) City Council
approved the sale of TDRs at $1.6
million for low-income housing and to
pay off $147,630 worth of exisitng debt
for Benaroya Hall. In exchange The
Washington Mutal Bank and the Seattle
Art Museum are allowed increased
density in the new office tower and an
expansion to the Seattle Art Museum
at 2nd and Union. Washington Mutual
Tower will achieve 420,000 square feet
of additional density.
Source:Seattle.gov website http://www.seattle.
gov/news/detail.asp?ID=4264&Dept=28
King County-The County currently

uses two different transfer of residential
density credit ordinances to encourage
private property owners to preserve
open space, wildlife habitat, woodlands,
shoreline access, community separators, trails, historic landmarks, agricultural land and park sites.
Redmond -located just outside of
Seattle, has a TDR program in which the
sending areas are lands zoned Agriculture or Urban Recreation or lands classified as critical wildlife habitat. When a
sending site is not classified as critical
habitat, the transferable development
is simply the amount of development
allowed by the sites zoning once wetlands and other unbuild able areas have
been excluded from the calculation.
Source:Pruetz
BASIC ELEMENTS OF SUCCESSFUL TDR PROGRAMS

A clear and valid public purpose for applying a TDR program, such
as open space preservation, agricultural or forest preservation, or the
protection of historic landmarks.
Clear designation of the sending areas and the receiving areas, preferably on the zoning map.
Consistency between the location of sending and receiving areas
and the policies of the local comprehensive plan, including the future
land-use plan map.
Recording of the development rights as a conservation easement,
which will inform future owners of the restrictions and make them
enforceable by civil action.
Uniform standards for what constitutes a development right, preferably based on quantifiable measures like density, area, floor-area-ratio, and height, should be used to determine what development right
is being transferred.
Sufficient pre-planning in the receiving area, including provisions for
adequate public facilities.
Source:BREDIN
SOURCES
Rick Pruetz, AICP, 1999, APA National Planning Conference,
Chief Assistant Community Development Director/City Planner
City of Burbank, California
http://www.asu.edu/caed/proceedings99/PRUETZ/PRUETZ.HTM
Tools for quality growth_Transfer Developemnet rights
http://outreach.ecology.uga.edu/tools/tdr.html
Cases, Statutes, Examples, and a Model
John B. Bredin, Esq.
Session: April 18, 2000, 2:30-3:45 p.m.
http://www.asu.edu/caed/proceedings00/BREDIN/bredin.htm, John B. Bredin, Esq. 2000, APA National Planning Conference, Transfer of Development Rights:
King County:Website, Definitions -Transfer of Developemnt Rights
http://dnr.metrokc.gov/wlr/tdr/definitions.htm
Seattle.gov website, City of Seattle News Advisory, 4/19/2004
CITY GAINS HOUSING, DEBT FUNDING THROUGH SALE OF TRANSFERABLE DEVELOPMENT
RIGHTS, http://www.seattle.gov/news/detail.asp?ID=4264&Dept=28
http://www.rivercenter.uga.edu/education/etowah/documents/pdf/tdr.pdf
Seattle, Office of Housing, Transferable Development Rights (TDR)
& Bonus Programs, Seattle.gov, website, http://www.seattle.gov/housing/2001/TDR-BonusPrograms2001.htm
2 |TDR

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environmentally sensitive sites

King County-The County currently

BASIC ELEMENTS OF SUCCESSFUL TDR PROGRAMS

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