The Time Has Come For TDR In The Upstate!

By Brad Wyche  

     “Win-win” is an overused term these days, but I can’t think of a better way to describe programs based on the Transfer of Development Rights (TDR). It is an ingenious concept. A community identifies places where it would like to see less development — called “sending areas”— and places where it would like to more development —called “receiving areas.” Then, the free market is put to work: Developers can purchase development rights from willing landowners in the sending areas and transfer those rights to the receiving areas.

The end result is a win-win: Important lands and resources are preserved, the owners of those lands are compensated, growth occurs in places where roads, water, sewer and other utilities are already in place, and taxpayers save a lot by not having to extend and provide these services to less developed areas.

The program is 100 per cent voluntary. Property owners in the sending areas do not have to even talk to developers unless they want to. But if the owner is interested and reaches an agreement with the developer, this is what happens: The owner is paid, signs what is essentially a conservation easement that does not allow the property to be developed, and continues to own and enjoy the land. The developer is allowed to transfer those development rights and “add” them to the project in the receiving area.

	A simple example of how TDR works: A 50 acre farm is preserved, and 40 homes are added to the development in the city.

TDR is not just a theory — it works! Over 160 communities throughout the United States are using it to preserve important lands, manage growth and reduce infrastructure and service costs. Montgomery County, Maryland probably has the most successful TDR program in the country. Since 1980, approximately 3,000 TDR transactions have been accomplished, preserving nearly 40,000 acres of important rural lands.

TDR should be just as successful in the Upstate. We have some of the most beautiful “sending areas” in the world — the spectacular Blue Ridge Escarpment along the North Carolina border, the breathtaking Scenic Highway 11, the prime farmlands of Anderson County, the horse country of northern Spartanburg County, to name just a few. The “receiving area,” too, is quite obvious — basically it’s the Interstate 85 corridor.

How do we make TDR a reality in our region? A good first step would be for one of our Upstate counties to adopt a pilot program. This is how it happened in King County, Washington, which adopted a pilot program in October 1998 and converted it to permanent status two years later. The program has already preserved thousands of acres and won several national awards.

Which Upstate county wants to lead the way?

Ready to learn more?

An outstanding book on the subject is Saved by Development: Preserving Environmental Areas, Farmland and Historic Sites with Transfer of Development Rights, by Rick Pruetz, who spoke at Upstate Forever’s conference on zoning in 2002.