Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) Case Studies

Issues Addressed:
Housing Costs Housing Options Infrastructure Sustainable Housing
The Cottages at Back River Road project features small detached single-family around a central green area. It was enabled by TDR in Dover. (Image via Foster’s Daily Democrat.)

Dover, NH TDR

The City of Dover recently enabled a workforce housing project called the Cottages at Back River Road through its Transfer of Development Rights program. The development consists of 44-detached “cottage style” units that are 385 square feet each located on a 7.16 acre site. These residences, which will all be rental units, will be capped at HUD’s Fair Market Rates and are meant to support the local workforce by giving employees affordable homes near their work.

Stowe, VT

This Vermont resort town implemented zoning changes to protect farm and meadowlands from large-scale commercial development, drastically reducing potential development in some areas of town. The town implemented TDR to both soften the financial blow to those landowners and to improve development quality in identified growth nodes.

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.)

King County, WA

King County, Washington, where Seattle is located, has a TDR program that has protected 225 square miles of rural and open space lands. The program redirects development pressure from outer suburbs, exurbs, and farmlands to urbanized areas of the county. King’s County runs a TDR bank to facilitate transactions, and it operates an exchange where private actors can participate in the TDR market. The county also facilitates interlocal agreements between participating municipalities and manages transfer of obligations between communities.

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A diagram of an idealized age-friendly neighborhood. The neighborhood includes a mix of housing types, including detached single-family homes of various sizes, mixed-use buildings, and a cottage court. The diagram includes the following labels pointing to aspects of the drawing: "Nearby retail, community center, and open space;" "Diverse housing options, including apartments and starter homes;" "Single-story housing layouts with shared amenities;" "Sidewalks and other accessible infrastructure;" and "Accessory dwelling units for multi-generational households."
Age Friendly Neighborhoods
An axonometric diagram of two buildings next to each other. One building is four stories with two entrances. On the bottom story there is a sign for "nh hardware." The second building is two stories with three entrances (including a corner entrance), awnings, and cafe tables). The drawing is labeled "Retail, restaurant, and other active uses on ground floor" and "Housing on upper levels."
Mixed-Use Development
A diagram with two versions of the same plot of land, one over the other. On the top version, the land contains only one single-family home with many wings and a large garage and a long driveway. This version is labeled with a large 'X' and "Regulations cannot mandate unaffordable housing everywhere." The version below contains two modestly sized single-family homes at the front of the site, and a driveway leading back to a cottage court, containing six small single-family homes around a central green. This version is labeled with a large checkmark and "Workforce housing must be allowed in a majority of residential areas."
Workforce Housing Ordinance
A diagram showing two versions of the same building. At the top: a darkened mill-style building with missing windows, a broken roof, and sparse plant growth around it. An arrow points to an image below where the image has been brightened, the windows replaced, the roof repaired, and a tree growing next the structure.
Adaptive Reuse