Montgomery County, MD

This Maryland county is often regarded as the best example of TDR in the US. The county’s landscape ranges from dense inner DC suburbs like Bethesda and Silver Spring to contemporary suburban and exurban development to farmland and forests. These varied conditions enabled the county to launch its TDR program in the 1980s. Along with a building boom and Maryland’s mostly county-level governance, the program took off. More than 50,000 acres of farmland were preserved. However, only 4% of subdivisions used during its most active decades, and exurban development continues to alter the rural part of the county. This TDR program has been criticized for not aligning the economics of TDR credits with the zoning capacity in the receiving zone.
A map of Montgomery County, Maryland. Most of the county is shown in yellow. The cities of Takoma Park, Rockville, and Gaithersburg are labeled in the large yellow area containing all of the southern, eastern, and central parts of the county. The town of Poolsville in the western part of the county is labeled and shown in a small yellow area. The western and northern edges of the county are shown in green with the label "Agricultural Reserve."
A map of Montgomery County, MD showing the Agricultural Preserve (sending area) and growth nodes (around which are the receiving areas).(Image via Wikimedia.)