Stakeholder talks concerning transferable development rights (TDR) got truly underway last week, but the opening round of comments on county Supervisor David Slutzky’s “strawman” proposal didn’t augur much of a future.
It will be hard to find consensus among the two dozen or so participants representing developers, realtors, businessmen, property owners, farmers, environmentalists, smart-growthers, slow-growthers and no-growthers. At the August 14 work session, each stakeholder tossed out pros and cons, and the latter list grew lengthy after two rounds.
Development rights refer to the ability of a landowner to subdivide her property with new buildable lots. Some in the county are concerned about the roughly 250 new homes that go up annually in the so-called rural area—the 95 percent of the county where development is supposed to be limited. With Slutzky’s TDR proposal, the rural area would be downzoned to one development right per 50 acres from 21 acres currently—but landowners could sell those development rights. Who would buy them? Developers with land in a newly created “receiving area,” allowing them to skip past the cumbersome (and unpredictable) rezoning process. In theory, farmers get to sell the farm without selling the farm, developers don’t have to negotiate proffers, and the county preserves more land from being disturbed.
If only it were that simple. No-growthers are troubled by the “receiving area”—in Slutzky’s proposal, it is a 20 percent expansion of the growth areas, sacrificing another 1 percent of the county to development. The sticking point for the property rights crowd seems to be the downzoning.
Sarah Henley, representing property rights group Forever Albemarle, was adamant against the downzoning. “It’s extremely offensive for landowners to have their development rights put on a table,” said Sarah Henley. “People have their hackles up.”
Despite some obvious discomfort with major portions of the proposal, those stakeholders in attendance split into groups to discuss possible sticking points, such as how to create a marketplace for the development rights and the specifics of the receiving area. In two weeks, the stakeholders will reconvene for another session.
No locality in Virginia has instituted a TDR plan—Montgomery County, Maryland is the closest place, and there it has had mixed success. But North Pointe developer Chuck Rotgin pointed out that if it could happen anywhere in Virginia, it would be Albemarle County.
“This is a very difficult concept, and it very well may not work,” said Rotgin. “If it can happen, it’s in Albemarle.”
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