TDR Programs: Protecting Rural Farmland to Supply Food for Urbanites

Though there’s some debate about whether local food is better for the environment, I think it’s safe to say that all else equal (farm practices, mode of transportation, amount/type of packaging, etc.), a food product traveling 50 miles as opposed to 1500 miles is responsible for less greenhouse gas emissions. Preserving and promoting local food has many other benefits as well, such as increased transparency of the food supply as consumers can visit the farms their food comes from and chat with the farmers. For these reasons and many more, it is important that we protect local agricultural land.

Here in King County there is a program on the table that aims to do just that. The Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program is a market-based tool that simultaneously promotes conservation and urban growth. It’s a voluntary program that provides rural landowners with a financial incentive to preserve their land from development, and grants a permanent conservation easement to their property; thereby preserving fertile land and thwarting future suburban development.

That “right to develop” can then be purchased by city developers who can use the credits to build beyond development restrictions, i.e. constructing taller and larger buildings than codes permit. This promotes greater density in urban centers, encouraging folks to live/work/play in places that are closely situated to one another. Compact development leads to less vehicle miles traveled, and greater energy and resource efficiency.

In 2006, the TDR program partnership between Seattle and King County lapsed. Though Seattle City Council showed overwhelming support for renewing the program in 2009,  a new program has yet to be implemented.

King County wants to begin negotiations with Seattle to develop an agreement that would use a TDR program to protect farms that supply the city’s farmers’ markets. Currently, 49 out of 59 King County-based farms supplying Seattle’s markets are not protected from development and could be converted into areas filled with residential development (and the myriad of roads that comes with that). A TDR program would allow King County to reach out to these farms and provide them with the option to protect their land from the financial pressure of developers.

A TDR program is an important tool in protecting our food supply and fighting climate change. Reinstating a TDR agreement is an important step in ensuring that farms in rural King County can become economically-viable and continue to provide fresh, local food to our city’s farmers’ markets.

For more information on how this affects local growers, check out this recent article from the Seattle Times, which documents one farm’s fight to secure arable land:

John Huschle has moved from one rented property to another five times since he became a farmer in the Snoqualmie Valley in the mid-1990s.

Renting has meant uncertainty about the future, agonizing over whether to invest thousands of dollars to bring in electricity, whether to build another greenhouse or plant berries. Once Huschle had to move sheds, greenhouses and other equipment at spring planting time.

He’s lived with the fear that a landlord might give him permission to raise pigs but then change his mind if an animal escaped or the smell of manure wafted off-site.

More…

Related posts:

1. Council Shows Continued Support for Programs to Transfer Development Rights
2. King County Updates Farmland Preservation Program
3. Council Supports Renewal of Agreement to Protect Rural Lands

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