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Daily Record: Tuesday hearing eyes Kittitas County rights transfer program
By MIKE JOHNSTON
Senior Writer
KITTITAS COUNTY — A proposed transfer of development rights program for Kittitas County’s rural areas is the focus of a public hearing set for the county commissioners’ at 2 p.m. Tuesday.
A draft ordinance outlining a voluntary development rights transfer program was developed early last fall by the nonprofit Cascade Land Conservancy working as a consultant with county government and submitted to the county after a year of work.
According to an agenda report, Tuesday’s public hearing on a transfer of development rights, or TDR, program, will be in Room 109 at the courthouse in Ellensburg.
The hearing is the last of seven hearings scheduled for the 2 p.m. hearing period.
County Commissioner Paul Jewell, contacted Friday, said a voluntary TDR program is not only helpful for agricultural lands, but also can help forest landowners in gaining additional economic incentive to keep their land in natural-resource production and, at the same time, allow reasonable development in appropriate rural areas.
“Development in rural areas traditionally used for agriculture or forestry greatly affects these lands’ unique public and private resources,” Jewell said.
A TDR program in the county is “another growth management tool” that allows both rural landowners and developers to profit, he said.
Jewell said Commissioners Alan Crankovich and Mark McClain authorized the TDR study with the Cascade Land Conservancy, or CLC, before his election, but pursuing a TDR ordinance for the county was part of his campaign initiative.
According to a news release from the CLC, a transfer of development rights transaction involves landowners being paid an agreed-upon price for the development potential of their lands, creating development credits that can be sold to builders or developers for projects in other parts of the county that are more compatible with higher-density housing developments.
The credits allow a development project to be larger or contain more living units than might be permitted under existing zoning. A conservation easement is put in place on the seller’s property ensuring that it remains working, natural resource land by preventing further development of the protected property.
The CLC, in cooperation with county government and private landowners, have used 2007 Legislature funding to conserve about 480 acres of forested property west of Ellensburg in a TDR pilot project.