Is Your Community TDR-Ready?
Zoning Practice — September 2009
By Richard Pruetz, FAICP, Noah Standridge
Not a member but want to buy a copy? You'll need to create a free My APA account to purchase.
Create account
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. TDR is used in at least 33 states and has saved more than 400,000 acres of farmland, open space, and environmentally significant land, often with minimal public funding. Despite that track record, only a fraction of U.S. cities, counties, towns, and villages use TDR, possibly because they assume that TDR program adoption is always complicated and time consuming.
However, many communities are positioned to create a workable TDR program relatively painlessly. Plan-consistent TDR works within the development limits of the current general plan through a simple requirement, which is inserted into the zoning code.
This issue of Zoning Practice explains the concept of plan-consistent TDR and includes a diagnostic tool for communities to see if they are ready for TDR.
Details
About the Authors
Richard Pruetz, FAICP
Rick Pruetz, FAICP has 45 years of planning experience. He received a Master of Urban Planning degree in 1979 and held positions in private and public planning departments for 20 years, including 14 years as the City Planner of Burbank, California. In 1999, he began a planning consultant practice preparing TDR feasibility studies, ordinances, and programs for cities and counties throughout the US. He authored six planning books including Lasting Value: Open Space Planning and Preservation Successes (APA Planners Press) and The TDR Handbook: Designing and Implementing Transfer of Development Rights Programs (Island Press) with Arthur Nelson and Doug Woodruff.
Noah Standridge