Transfer of Development Rights Report - Rhode Island Department ...

For example, many communities are beginning to embrace “smart growth” models of development in
place of older plans and regulations that have tended to promote sprawl. These newer approaches
encourage the concentration of development in compact centers, such as existing or new villages or
town centers, and discourage low-density residential and commercial development that would
consume extensive amounts of open space. However, in most cases existing zoning actually promotes
the low-density forms of development that the “smart growth” models attempt to avoid:
♦ Residential areas are zoned at typical suburban densities of less than two dwellings per acre (that
is, with minimum lot requirements of one-half acre or more);
♦ In village areas and town centers, zoning regulations typically require larger lot areas, frontages
and setbacks than are characteristic of the original settlement pattern, as well as requiring on-site
parking lots which further lower densities and erode village land use patterns;
♦ Commercial areas are zoned along major arterials with site design standards that allow or
encourage the provision of extensive parking lots serving a single property without good
vehicular or pedestrian connections.
Because property owners have an expectation of the value of their land based on the development
rights established under existing zoning, making dramatic changes in zoning that would reduce these
rights is politically difficult and raises issues of equity and fairness. Allowing other property owners
to benefit from increased density also raises issues of fairness, and in addition can create opposition
from neighbors who expect that the existing land use pattern will be permanent. TDR provides a
mechanism to address the equity and fairness issues by requiring the owners of land designated for
increased density (i.e., than the underlying zoning) to purchase rights from landowners in the
reduced-density areas.
It must be emphasized that a purely voluntary TDR program is a weak tool for implementing land use
policies. With a voluntary program, the underlying zoning continues to express the “official” land
use plan of the community, and achieving the preferred development pattern (for example, shifting
development from farmland to villages) requires either a significant incentive package or landowners
and developers who are exceptionally receptive to the concepts and objectives of the program. TDR
is much more effective when it is established as a complement to a mandatory rezoning strategy than
as a completely voluntary option to existing zoning.
TDR programs have been adopted to support a variety of preservation objectives. The earliest use of
the technique, in New York City, was to protect historic landmarks; but most other programs are used
either to protect environmental resources or to preserve open space. A number of programs in
Maryland and Pennsylvania are used to preserve farmland, and programs in the New Jersey
Pinelands and Long Island Pine Barrens are used to protect sensitive ecological resources. It is
noteworthy that TDR programs have not been designed explicitly to promote compact development,
although the increased density of a receiving area is a necessary complement to the reduced density
in the sending area.
10 Transfer of Development Rights