One tool that Blaine County leverages to manage its growth is a transfer of development rights (TDR) program. The program allows landowners to sell and transfer the development rights associated with a parcel of land in a sending area, to another parcel in a receiving area. Designated sending and receiving areas traditionally direct development into cities and conserve open space or agricultural land in rural areas. After more than a decade idle, Blaine County’s program saw transactions in 2021 and 2023.
TDR Success Factors & Blaine County Report Card
The County’s program is limited by several factors known to bolster other programs, and specifically analyzed in the report, "Blaine County Transfer of Development Rights Report." The report assesses how Blaine County's program stacks up against 10 factors that Rick Pruetz identifies in his book, Smart Climate Action Through Transfer of Development Rights:
Demand for bonus development,
Optimal receiving areas,
Sending area development constraints,
Few or no alternatives to TDR,
Market incentives,
Certainty of ability to use TDR,
Strong public support,
Program simplicity,
Promotion/facilitation, and
TDR banks.
The best score that the report grants the Blaine County Transfer of Development Rights Program is a B for "Promotion/Facilitation," "Certainty of ability to use TDR," and "Market incentives."
A major impediment to "Optimal receiving areas," meaning that "Receiving areas are located where infrastructure, jobs, and amenities support the bonus densities sought." The receiving area of Blaine County's TDR program is currently located in the unincorporated County, and infrastructure issues currently limit water/wastewater capacity and preclude increased density in the south valley communities with "Demand for bonus development."
A Boise state study suggests that "antigrowth sentiment in the area” and aversion to increased density in downtown cores limits the effectiveness of the TDR program and may inadvertently encourage sprawl outside urban centers, or promote the development of unprotected land near but not inside receiving areas. Though these confines limit the efficacy of the program in its current form, there is potential of a revamped program.
Connection to Conservation
A 2023 study commissioned by the Land Trust estimated that an expanded program could shift nearly 6,000 residential units out of the County, into city boundaries– conserving more than 56,000 acres in sending areas. Beyond land conservation, compact development supports sustainable water usage and transportation choices.
E-mail Community Planning Director Cece Osborn at cece@woodriverlandtrust.org to stay up to speed with the Community Planning program and express support for a revamped Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program.