Document Actions
A market-based way to save best farmland
Tacoma New Tribune editorial on the proposed Transfer of Development Rights legislation before the Pierce County Council.
As a consequence of growth and development, Pierce County has been losing irreplaceable farmland at a rate of 900 acres a year.
The extent to which housing subdivisions and commercial development have already devoured much of the Puyallup Valley’s best agricultural areas is plain to see.
Only in recent years has county government begun acting more assertively to preserve this essential component of the county’s quality of life. Now the County Council can do much more by approving two new conservation tools based on market incentives.
These involve transfer or purchase of development rights – TDR or PDR. To simplify, the owner of valuable agricultural land can sell or transfer the development rights to his or her property to a developer. In return, the developer gains the right to build to a greater density in areas where it makes sense to encourage more intensive greater development.
The beauty of this approach is that it is voluntary and market-driven. It promotes smart growth by steering development to areas where adequate public services already exist. It eases financial pressures on farmers to sell and makes it easier for them to keep their land in production.
Ideally, the program would operate countywide and include all its cities and towns. A developer wanting to add another floor or two to a condo building or commerical project in Tacoma or Puyallup might buy development rights from a farmer near Orting. Saving farmland in the valley surely improves the quality of life of city residents.
For now, it’s important to take the first step, which is setting up a system for managing a transfer/purchase program in unincorporated Pierce County. An ordinance to that effect proposed by County Executive John Ladenburg faces a vote by a council committee Tuesday.
The proposal results from a collaboration of all the interests involved, led by the Cascade Land Conservancy. Eight other counties – King, Snohomish, Thurston, Skagit, Clallam, Whatcom and Walla Walla – already have similar initiatives. The current proposal draws on lessons learned from sucessess and failures in those counties.
A transfer/purchase of development rights program would also work best with a substantial public kitty for buying development rights. A future county bond issue could build one. But for now the goal should be getting a transfer/purchase program in place to begin taking advantage of conservation opportunities now.
Putting off action would only result in the loss of yet more farmland. It’s long past time Pierce County adopted these two useful tools for protecting its agricultural heritage.