A great leap forward in managing growth

News Tribune of Tacoma editorial on the County Council acting to approve a Transfer of Development Rights Program.

With a unanimous vote last week, the Pierce County Council took the county from being a laggard in growth management to one of the state’s leaders.

It was a great moment. But now the county’s larger cities should get on board.

The council’s approval of an innovative transfer-of-development rights program is one of the county’s most momentous policy decisions since 1994, when it belatedly adopted a comprehensive land-use plan to guide growth.

The action shows that Pierce County government is serious about trying to preserve farmland and open space, rather than simply giving in to the pressures of development.

Growth is inevitable, but it needs to be managed, thoughtfully balancing the need to accommodate a growing population with the need to protect the quality of life that attracts growth in the first place.

Now the county will set up a land trust serving as a bank or market for development credits. Developers who want more density in urban or developed areas can obtain credits from the trust. Owners of prime farmland designated for protection by the county can sell or transfer to the trust their development rights; this allows them to obtain value from their property without having to give it up for development.

Other counties in the region have similar programs, but Pierce County is the first to make it mandatory for developers seeking comprehensive plan amendments (which is another way of saying rezoning for higher density). Pierce County’s plan also will be the first in Washington to have a land trust play such a key role.

The trust may be managed by the highly regarded Cascade Land Conservancy, which developed the proposal for the county.

The local building industry is nervous about the plan, and understandably so. It is a new way of doing business, and developers are worried it will be cumbersome and inefficient. But it is in their long-term interest to see that the region remains an attractive place to live.

The TDR concept works best when the “receiving” sites for density include cities as well as unincorporated parts of the county. Cities like Puyallup, Sumner, Orting and Bonney Lake need to begin growing up instead of out, limiting their encroachment on the county’s diminishing supply of prime farmland.

Tacoma, which can more readily accommodate greater density, should be a player, too. City dwellers benefit when the county’s “lungs” – the working farms and forests nearest cities – are preserved.

Pierce County, once notorious for anything-goes zoning, was called the poster child for the state’s landmark Growth Management Act. Now the county can be the poster child for something else – a smart, market-based approach to farmland preservation.