How Preservation Pays?
(Page 5 of 8)
August/September 1995
by Molly Miller
PACE is also called Purchase of Development Rights, or PDR. Owners sell development rights-to a government agency or conservation organization-like a land trust. The easement restricts or limits the type of development that can occur on the land. Participants retain ownership and control over the land.
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For example, in 1979, Seattle voters passed a $50 million bond issue to preserve farmland. The program offered the owners of agricultural land the opportunity to sell development rights to King County. The land remains private, but the owners must keep the land in agricultural or open-space use. There are 187 properties totaling 12,600 acres in the program. According to the Seattle Times, the county paid a range from as low as $480 per acre to as high as $18,975 per acre to buy the development rights. Restrictions state that at least 95 percent of the land must remain open and viable for cultivation. The number of residential units is permanently restricted, generally to one dwelling per 35 acres. The restrictions are on the property deed, and remain in effect even if the property changes hands. PACE is the kind of program that might save some of the Front Range farmland from the tract housing that gives my dad an ulcer as it edges toward our place. But first, Colorado needs some farsighted politicians to write up legislation and get a PACE program funded. PACE has become a popular conservation program in the Northeast, with nine state-funded programs from Maryland to Maine.
A variation on the PACE idea is the TDR Program, or Transfer of Development Rights, TDR programs create protection areas (sending areas) and development areas (receiving areas). Developers in the receiving areas bud development rights from landowners in the sending areas. Developers then may use these "transferred rights" to build at higher densities in receiving areas than existing zoning laws allow, while the land in the sending area is preserved. TDR banks are established to hold development rights so landowners can sell their rights without waiting for a builder. But, again, landowners can't take advantage of this great idea until a full-scale program is crafted via local government.
If getting rid of all your development options makes you nervous, think about limiting rather than prohibiting development. Basically, limited development means placing easements on some land to preserve it, while reserving the right to sell the rest. It's a good economic solution for some fast-growing areas, and it's more profitable than most other options because you get some of that developer money without throwing out all the land. But, you do throw out some; limited development is a realistic compromise between growth and conservation.
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