Agenda - Planning Commission - 12/03/2009

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Is Your Community TDR-Ready? By Rick Pruetz, FAICP, and Noah Standridge A transfer of development rights program, or TDR, reduces or eliminates development potential in places that should be preserved by increasing development potential in places where growth is appropriate. TOR is used in at least 33 states and has saved more than 400,000 acres offarmland, open space, and environmentally significant land, often with minimal public furiding. Despite that track record, only a fraction of u.s. cities, counties, towns, and villages use TDR, pos- sibly because they assume thatTDR program adoption is always complicated and time consuming. However, many communities are positioned to create a workable TDR prog.ram relatively painlessly. Admittedly; adoption ofa TDR program can be a long, labor-intensive process when it requires increases in the development limits depicted in a community's current general , plan. However, many communities prefer a TOR mechanism that requires no changes in the future density described in their general plans (typically depicted in future land-use maps or general plan maps). We distinguish this "plan~consistent" TOR approach from a more ambitious process that calls for increases in general plan densities,often triggering in- frastructure studies, extensive environmental review, and community resistance. In contrast, plan-consistentTDR works within the develop- ment limits of the current general plan through a simple requirement, described below, which is inserted into the zoning code. We recently wrote an article for the jour- nal of the American Planning Association that ranks the factors most often found in the top 20 TDR programs in the United States. From that study, we isolated fourquestions that planners can use to evaluate whether their communities are likely candidates for speedy' adoption of a plan-cons~stent TOR program. By taking the following four-question quiz" planners may decide to give TDR a second 96 look, since a plan-consistentTDR ordinance could be preserving farmland, open space, or natural areas,in their communities in one year or less. ture; But sometimes communities intentionally separate receiving areas from existing develop- ment to promote community acceptance, often using new-town or new-village concepts. TOR BASICS To review the jargon of TOR, the places that a community wants to preserveare called send- ing areas and can consist of wildlife habitat, watershed protection areas, forests, farmland, scenic views, recreational land, historic land- , marks, open space, and just about anything. else of special significance to a comrriunity. The places that a community finds suitable for future development are known as the receiving areas. Receiving areas are often places that are near jobs, schools, shopping, and infrastruc- With TOR, developers are allowed to ex- ceed a specified baseline level of development in the receiving areas in return for preserving land in the sending areas. When TOR works; Sending-area landowners are compensated for unused development potential while retaining ownership and the ability to Lise their property for farming and other rural activities in compli- ance with a permanent easement. Receiving- area developers achieve greater profit from the higher development potential despite the extra cost ofTDR, and communities are able to ZONINGPRACTICE 9.09 AMERICAN PlANNING ASSOCIATION (page 2