Buying, selling, and banking density

By Terry Talty

BRECKENRIDGE – It could be the instructions written on a Monopoly game card, “You promise never to build on your remote land and you can put two hotels on Park Ave.”

Not a game, this is the kind of agreement possible if Summit County approves a new rural planning tool called Transfer of Density Rights (TDR).

A TDR would be invoked when density rights, or the right to develop property, in one zoning district are transferred to land in another district where development is more desirable. The density allowed on the “sending,” or transferring, property could be piled up on the “receiving” property, allowing more buildable square footage than would be approved ordinarily on the “receiving” property. The property selling its development rights would be deeded to open space in the county’s current proposal.

The owner would be paid per parcel for giving up the development rights, paid by a developer seeking to buy density for a project. An interim version of this program is currently on the books in Summit County, but it has been rarely used.

The new plan being debated by the Upper Blue Planning Commission spells out more rules than the existing one. The sending property must be a minimum of 20 acres or a consolidation of 20 acres. One unit, a development right, would go with every 20 acres.

The only “sending” areas are rural or backcountry locations, where the county wants to reduce density, in accordance with the Joint Upper Blue Master Plan. The “receiving: area would still have to meet existing environmental rules before any development would be approved.

The landowner has the option to sell density or not. However, if an owner wanted to build on his land, the backcountry designation carries many different zoning rules. The proposed backcountry zoning would allow 600 square-feet for 5 acres, and 20 more square feet for every additional acre.

Road standards would be to allow a 12 percent grades, up from the current maximum of 8 percent. This zoning would allow no snow plowing to the property, unless it had been done historically.

Another facet of the TDR plan, proposes to establish a bank where a seller could deposit density and take out cash and the buyer could put in dollars and withdraw density. This system requires a fixed rate per unit of density, currently proposed as $30,000.