TDR Overview
Transferring development from areas that we want to preserve to areas where growth can be accommodated in an efficient and environmentally sound manner can bring substantial benefits to a community. Many municipalities want to protect environmentally sensitive areas, agricultural fields, view corridors, historical buildings and flood prone areas from development and redirect growth to developed areas that have certain densities, land-use mixes and infrastructure, in particular transit service. The Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) is a tool that allows communities to preserve valuable assets in a sending zone, without hurting the economic interests of the property owners in that zone, and generate “smart growth” in a receiving zone that is efficient from an environmental and economic point of view.
Combining TDR with Transit Oriented Development (TOD) creates a tremendous synergy between these two land-use tools. Whereas regular TOD encourages development that has high proportions of transit, bicycle and pedestrian travel and low proportions of automobile travel—but still generates auto travel, the combination of TOD and TDR guarantees that auto-oriented development is replaced with transit/bicycle/pedestrian oriented development, with the potential to significantly decrease vehicle miles of travel and greenhouse gas emissions.
