Town of Stillwater - TDR Report

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Town of Stillwater Demonstration Project

The overall objective of a potential TDR program in the Town of Stillwater is to interlink two concepts favored by the Town’s Comprehensive Plan. First, the Town has expressed interest in preserving agricultural land to promote the Town’s agricultural economy while limiting inefficient, low-density residential development. Second, the Town is also looking to promote smart growth development in closer proximity to the retail and commercial resources within the Village of Stillwater. A potential TDR program would accomplish both of these supportive objectives by providing a market-based tool to provide development incentives in Receiving Area in exchange for payment into a fund that can purchase conservation easements to preserve agricultural land in Sending Areas.

The goal of the Stillwater TDR report is to summarize and evaluate a potential TDR program that the Town could implement in coordination with the proposed Form-Based Zoning that is currently under consideration.

 

Proposed Sending and Receiving Areas

Sending Area:

T2 Rural Conservation Transect Zone

Receiving Area:

Proposed T3, T4, and T5 Transect Zones adjacent to the Village of Stillwater

 

Proposed TDR Process

Sale of Sending Site Development Rights

  1. Opting to take part in the TDR Program

    If a Sending Site owner takes part in the TDR program, the property owner may transfer through sale or donation all or part of the development rights as-sociated with the parcel to the Town of Stillwater TDR Bank for subsequent resale to a property owner in the Receiving Area.

  2. Determine the number of credits that can be transferred from the Sending Site

    Sending Site owner submits an application to the Planning Board. The application would describe the proposed sending area parcel including an area calculation to demonstrate how many TDR credits may be sold.

  3. Valuation of Sending Site Credits

    Transfer formula is used in order to determine the value of the credits.

  4. Record the Conservation Easement

    Sending Site owner submits a draft conservation easement to the Town Attorney, who executes and records the easement. When the easement is recorded, the TDR certificate is transferred to the TDR Bank and payment is submitted to the Sending Site owner. The TDR Bank holds the TDR certificate until it is purchased by a Receiving Site owner.

Purchase of Receiving Site Development Rights

  1. Opting to take part in the TDR Program

    If a Receiving Site owner takes part in the TDR program, the property owner may purchase TDR credits from the TDR Bank and apply those development rights to an approved Receiving Area parcel.

  2. Valuation of Development Rights

    Appraisal of development costs of the Receiving Area parcel shall be performed by an agreeable third party appraiser. Appraisal and development cost analysis must be approved by the TDR Bank. The difference between the value of the undeveloped property (at base density) and the value of the undeveloped property with TDR credits represents the fair market value of the development rights to be transferred.

  3. Submit Application to the Planning Board

    Application should include a zoning analysis that demonstrates the property area, number of units, and intent to purchase TDR Credits to achieve the density increase.

    Receiving Site owners are eligible to receive density bonuses when purchasing TDR Credits. The owner may purchase any number of TDR Credits, as long as the development does not exceed the maximum density allowed in the zoning district in question.

  4. Use of TDR Credits in the Receiving Area shall occur in conjunction with a development proposal.

    Upon approval of development plans and the TDR application, TDR credits will be transferred to the parcel in the Receiving Area and the Receiving Site owner shall submit payment to the TDR Bank in the amount of the cost per credit times the number of credits, plus associated administrative fees.

 

TDR Bank

The report proposes creation of a TDR Bank to assist in implementation of the TDR program by purchasing and selling TDR credits. The report anticipates that the Bank would be administered by the Town, although specific details about the administration of the Bank would need to be developed by the Town. The TDR Bank would be able to acquire development rights only from properties located within the designated Sending Area. The TDR credits purchased from the Bank could be used to increase development density for properties located within the designated Receiving Areas.