The Summit County Council is again considering use of a Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program after suspending the practice last year.
A means of preserving open space, TDRs are used to encourage someone with a right to build somewhere a community would like to keep undeveloped to do their project in a different area in exchange for incentives.
The state audited Summit County’s TDR procedures in 2010 and condemned it as unfair in a December report. Prior to the report, the county had placed a moratorium on the procedure due to controversy. Redstone Village and Newpark Resort were both approved with TDRs that expanded the Swaner Nature Preserve, said county planner Kimber Gabryszak.
Now the County Council is using a private firm to help create a formal TDR program that complies with state law and national standards.
The problem with TDRs, said Summit County Manager Bob Jasper, is that if you use them to discourage development in one place, you must allow it in another place.
“The county will have to identify areas appropriate for pretty good density the first part of this is where are we going to have growth?” he said.
For some time, the County Council has been considering allowing more development on the east side of U.S. 40.
Ted Knowlton, with the firm The Planning Center, said the county needs to define clear program goals including where it wants growth to occur, where it would like to see conservation and what tools are already in place to achieve these ends.
“TDR is not a silver bullet,” he added.
To work effectively, developers must have economic incentives to participate and there must be attractive “receiving” zones for them to move their projects to.
If developers have other means of increasing the density of their projects, they will reject TDR offers, he said. For example, if a city or town agrees to annex the land, developers could get more density approved.
If a community is confident it can overcome these challenges, the creation of a TDR credit bank can smooth the way for success, Knowlton said.
In exchange for giving up development rights, the bank usually run by the city or county government can issue credits to build later if a desirable receiving zone is unavailable. These credits become a commodity or a currency sold or traded at fair market value.
The lending and receiving zones must be established first, he said, to generate confidence in the program.
Jasper said he’s been meeting with Coalville Mayor Duane Schmidt about creating receiving zones in North Summit.
Currently the city can rezone areas to invite more building if it wishes, but landowners are not selling to developers. If the county wants to, it could make the projects less expensive by helping with infrastructure and give people in Coalville a carrot to support development, Jasper explained.
The County Council agreed to meet informally with planning commissioners and discuss priorities for moving forward. It also agreed to invite participation from key legislators concerned by the 2010 negative audit.