JCC Hears How Md. County Preserves Rural Land, Character

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

James City County is looking for a new way to conserve rural lands, and Montgomery County, Maryland, might hold the key.

At a meeting Tuesday afternoon, various county staff, residents, a few planning commissioners and the two Democratic party county supervisors came to a meeting on rural land preservation co-hosted by the citizen group J4C. Callum Murray, leader of the Community Planning Team for Montgomery County, discussed the workings of his county’s successful Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program and was peppered by questions from a clearly interested audience after his presentation.

The keys to success, aside from well-crafted regulations and clear guidelines, include strong political and community support, Murray said.

In general, a TDR program helps maintain rural lands by moving density from agricultural lands to targeted growth areas. This helps keep down sprawl and encroachment on green space, and also keeps residential development confined to certain places. It’s a simple enough idea, but the devil is in the details, as Tuesday’s audience found out.

Montgomery County, located near Washington, D.C., began its TDR program in the 1980s by first downsizing the density in their rural lands from one unit per five acres to one unit per 25 acres (meaning each home now needs to be on 25 acres to be built in that zoning area). A rural land owner can build one unit on 25 acres of land, but can sell TDR rights at a density of one unit for every five. A farmer with 100 acres would have a total of 20 units available to sell to a developer.

The county figured this would be enough to discourage sprawl, but they misjudged the market and huge homes on 25-acre lots started springing up in the midst of pristine farmland (the county is in the top 10 in the country based on per capital income, allowing residents to afford these homes). There are currently nearly 600 large farms in Montgomery County that generate about $250 million each year, and Murray joked that he started getting calls from people in these new, subdivided rural homes complaining of farm noise.

To help combat this, the county started a Building Lot Termination (BLT) program, which aims to remove buildable lots from rural areas.

Montgomery County judged well more often than poorly, though, when it came to crafting their successful TDR program, which has preserved more than 51,000 acres of rural land from development.

More than 100 jurisdictions have emulated the program, according to Murray.

Aside from drastically changing the density of rural lands to get the TDR program going, Montgomery County crafted master plans for the areas receiving the transferred density (to make sure development occurred in a thought-out way), ensured there was a three-person staff to handle TDR cases and issues, and kept detailed records of all TDR rights available and sold.

The county also developed detailed rules on what lands were eligible for the program and how and when developers could use purchased TDRs.

Murray told the audience that the program worked so well because it had such firm political and public support. His county was a fast-growing county and residents “expect growth and accept it,” he said. They appreciate having pristine rural lands to use thanks to the program.

Some of the challenges the county still faces include finding new receiving areas and keeping down sprawling developments on 25-acre lots in rural areas.

Audience questions were wide-ranging, but clearly staff, planning commissioners and supervisors were trying to figure out how TDR might work in James City.

Planning Commissioner Joe Poole asked lightheartedly how Montgomery maintained its political will to support TDR. After a few laughs, Murray said it wasn’t a problem in his county when it came to this program.

Supervisor John McGlennon asked how firm Montgomery was about not extending their water and sewer lines (which James City uses as its primary growth-control tool now), and Murray answered that his county is extremely firm on not extending it or granting permission for septic systems unless county staff checks the land out first.

Supervisor Jim Icenhour asked if the bulk of TDRs had already been sold, and Murray said he could confirm later but that yes, he believed that was the case.

The J4Cs organized the meeting Tuesday because the county is in the process of updating its ordinances and supervisors have mentioned a desire to investigate TDR as a means of preserving rural lands instead of relying solely on limiting water, sewer and county services.

Other Presentations

The audience also heard from John Horne, the county’s general services director, who described the county’s Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) and green space programs.

The green space program began in 1997, and the PDR program (in which the county buys development rights from property owners) started in 2001. Both were originally funded with one cent of the county’s tax rate each. Later, voters chose to approve a bond referendum, which allows the county to borrow money to purchase green space.

The green space program has been used to purchase properties like Mainland Farm and the Jamestown beach and marina sites. It has also been used to buy conservation easements. Since 1997, $21 million has been spent to preserve 1,300 acres through green space program.

The PDR program is solely to buy easements and is more structured than the green space program. Since 2001, the PRD program has helped preserve more than 500 acres.

Caren Schumacher, executive director for the Williamsburg Land Conservancy, explained to the group that her organization also works to preserve rural lands in the county.

The Land Conservancy currently manages 28 easements and has helped protect 3,300 acres in and around the county.