Program Overview -
Transfer of Development Rights

The right to develop land for residential or commercial purposes is one of a bundle of rights associated with land ownership. The County’s TDR Program allows landowners of designated sending sites to separate the right to develop land from the bundle of other property rights. Sending sites are rural or resource lands with farm, forest, open space, or regional trail amenities.

Through TDR, the separated right(s) are turned into a tradable commodity that can be bought and sold – just as land can be bought and sold. When a landowner chooses to separate some, or all, development rights, the property is preserved through a conservation easement. A conservation easement will act to reduce landowner property taxes. Landowners can retain development rights on their property for future use and the land remains in private ownership.

These transferable development rights or “TDRs” are typically bought by developers of designated receiving sites. Receiving sites are typically Urban areas eligible for increased density. The purchased TDRs give developers the ability to build additional houses that exceed the number allowed by the zoning base density. The diagram below illustrates the basic TDR principle.

For information about TDR prices, transactions, and market trends TDRs see TDR Market Information. To buy or sell TDRs, go to the TDR Exchange.

Benefits and Uses of TDRs

If you are a developer interested in buying development rights for additional density in a project, the receiving site criteria will provide you information to see if your property is eligible as a receiving site and help you determine the maximum additional density you may qualify for through TDR. In addition to providing additional density at development projects, there are several alternative uses for TDRs. For example, TDRs can be used to meet traffic concurrency requirements, to allow larger accessory dwelling units, or to help meet greenhouse gas emissions targets.

If you are a landowner interested in enrolling your property in the TDR Program as a sending site, review sending site criteria to see if your property is eligible to enroll, review the TDR enrollment process, and then download a TDR Program application. It is also possible to reduce your property taxes by transferring TDRs.

The TDR Program benefits the Citizens of King County in multiple ways:

1. Land that is important to the health of the local environment and the well-being of County citizens is protected at no public expense.

• The County - and its taxpayers - do not pay the high price to buy land outright, nor do they incur long term management costs of the land if it were put into public ownership;
• Land is permanently preserved and remains in private ownership and is managed by private landowners;

2. Development growth is focused into urban areas and away from critical rural and resource areas.

• This creates more efficient development patterns and makes use of urban infrastructure to reduce the amount of development in the County’s rural and resource lands;
• TDR acts to reduce and minimize the significant costs to the County of providing services to rural development located far from urban services;

Since the year 2000, 137,500 acres of Rural and Resource lands or almost 215 square miles have been protected from development by King County's TDR Program.

For more detailed information about the Program visit the King County TDR Code (KCC 21A.37)

For questions about TDR Program please contact Darren Greve.