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La Plata County begins to look at feasability
of transferable development rights
by Will Sands
photos by Todd Newcomer
Sidebar:
Southern Utes blast transferable development rights
In the face of an unprecedented push for growth and development,
La Plata County is searching for an antidote. There is specific
hope that a tool, known as transferable development rights, could
put an end to the kind of sprawl that’s beginning to get
a toe-hold locally. Government agencies elsewhere in the state
offer pictures of hope, having successfully used TDRs to effectively
manage growth in other areas.
Last Monday, La Plata County commissioners
took undivided favorable public input and unanimously voted to
impose a six-month moratorium on development in the Grandview
area. Much of the motivation for the moratorium was preventing
speculation and ramshackle development immediately east of Durango.
However, county staffers also are planning to use the breather
to look into transferable development rights, which would encourage
protection of open space by shifting density into the Grandview
area.
Now or never
“The one thing that’s concerned
the county for years is sprawl expanding beyond Durango’s
boundaries,” says Joe Crain, director of county planning
services. “In order to curb sprawl, there has to be some
mechanism to do that.”
The Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Crader
family have forwarded a plan for as many as 2,000 new units on
a 920-acre site roughly two miles east of Durango. The plan gained
real momentum when plans were announced to donate 35 acres to
Mercy Medical Center, which plans to leave its undersized building
downtown and relocate. In addition, the tribe is hopeful that
the city will soon annex the land. The potential high density
of the development, the prospects for an annexation as well as
the addition of the hospital all make the project a good candidate
for transferable development rights, according to Crain.
“We see Grandview as an opportunity,
maybe the last opportunity, to do something with transferable
development rights,” he says.
County planner Stacy Patten concurs.
“We felt like we should try now or
forever be quiet,” she says.
In a nutshell, TDRs are the process by which
property rights are bought on areas fit to be open space and transferred
to areas fit for dense, urban development. In the case of Grandview,
the Southern Ute Tribe would be given an opportunity to develop
density in excess of regulations. However, getting extra units
would entail buying out other property owners’ ability to
develop their pristine or threatened land, thus preserving that
land for perpetuity. The open space extending north, south and
east of Elmore’s Corner is at the top of the county’s
list for preservation. However, Crain notes that all agricultural
land throughout La Plata County is of concern.
“There’s a real opportunity,
I think, to make the Grandview area a dense urban area and give
developers an incentive to purchase and transfer development rights,”
says Crain.
Though the next six months will be spent
in part deciding whether TDRs would be feasible, La Plata County
is certain about one thing: Transferable development rights would
not be forced upon anyone.
“We’re going to stress that it’s
going to be a voluntary system,” says Crain. “We’re
going to have to dangle a pretty good carrot in front of developers.”
 A
test piece
Elsewhere in Colorado, municipal and county
governments have used both the carrot and the stick to successfully
implement schemes whereby development pays for the acquisition
of open space.
“We sort of do it without calling it
transferable development rights,” says Crested Butte Planner
John Hess.
In the late 1990s, a 33-unit development
was proposed immediately outside the limits of the town of Crested
Butte. Known as the Kapushion Annexation, the development requested
admittance into Crested Butte boundaries as well as a tie-on to
municipal sewer and water service. However, one of the prerequisites
for joining the town was the preservation of 5 acres of open space
per unit. After negotiations, the Kapushion Annexation locked
110 adjacent acres in permanent preservation. “They could
have done it anywhere, but they did it next door to their property,”
says Hess.
Hess says that the 5-acre requirement literally
had just been adopted when the development plan came before the
town. At that time, he thought it would have been prohibitive
of annexations. “We had just written that into our Three-Mile
Plan, and they walked into our door,” he says. “I
couldn’t believe it. I nearly fell off my chair.”
And while the Kapushion Annexation transfer
was seamless, Hess says that it’s not always so simple.
“Finding areas to preserve is easy,” he says. “There’s
always the problem of choosing where you’re sending that
density. The people living next door usually don’t like
it.”
Getting a developer to play is another obstacle,
according to Hess. However, he notes, “I think if you give
enough incentive to the developer it’ll work.”
(continued...)
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