The Calvert County, Maryland TDR program was profiled in Beyond Takings and Givings. This update was prompted by the publication in March 2003 of a study prepared by Virginia McConnell, Elizabeth Kopits and Margaret Walls for Resources for the Future (RFF) entitled How Well Can Markets for Development Rights Work? Evaluating a Farmland Preservation Program.(This study is available at www.rff.org.) 

As reported in Beyond Takings and Givings, the County doubled the baseline maximum density of the sending areas in 1999. But it also changed the density bonuses of all the pre-1999 receiving area zones as well. These changes are well summarized in the following table quoted from the RFF study. 

Beyond Takings and Givings stated that the Agricultural Preservation District designation must remain on a sending site once all the TDRs have been transferred. The RFF study states that the permanent easement status remains on the entire sending site after the first TDR from that site has been transferred. The RFF study correctly observes that this provision requires sending area landowners to have considerable belief in the longevity and success of the program. 

The RFF study points out that some sending area landowners were motivated to choose the TDR option by strengthened shoreline regulations instituted in 1989. Specifically, density is now limited to one unit per 20 acres within 1000 feet of tidal waters and no dwelling can be located closer than 100 feet of the shoreline.

The RFF study points out that the TDR program benefited in several ways from the County's participation in the TDR market. In 1993, Calvert County started the Purchase and Retirement (PAR) program, which buys and retires TDRs. Since its inception, PAR program transactions have accounted for roughly one third of all transactions in a typical year. Stated in terms of TDR acquisitions, the County purchased about 100 of the 700 TDRs sold in 1993 and about 860 of the 1,700 TDRs sold in 2001.

As a second program adopted in 2001, Leverage and Retire (LAR), farmers preserve their land and are reimbursed by the County over time. In an example given in the RFF study, a landowner might receive tax-free interest payments over 15 years followed by a payment for principal at the end of 15 years. The County benefits by being able to protect more land with limited near-term expenditure. However, landowners also benefit by deferring income into years when they plan to be retired and earning less income from other sources. The PAR and LAR programs together have preserved 3,371 acres, or approximately 25 percent of all the land preserved under the TDR program. 

The RFF study found that the average price paid for TDRs, (in 1999 dollars) rose from $1,125 in 1983 to $2,500 in 1993 and has remained relatively constant since then. The study attributes some of the price stability since 1993 to the County purchase programs with their annually announced prices for TDRs. According to the RFF study, County purchase prices in 2002 stood at $2,700 per TDR.

Even though the prime target for preservation is land zoned FCD and RPD, land within the RC zone can also qualify as a sending area. Nevertheless, the RFF study indicates that almost 80 percent of the land designated APD was previously zoned FCD and RPD. Since the FCD and RPD zones contain the best farmland in the County, the TDR program appears to be preserving the land most in need of preservation. 

The RFF study found that receiving sites occurred most frequently in the northern portions of the County, the area closest to Washington DC, Annapolis and Baltimore. Receiving site projects were almost always located in the RC zone, where the use of TDRs allows developers to go from one unit per ten acres to one unit per two acres. In other words, developers are using TDR to increase from very-low density development to low-density development. They rarely use TDR in the three zones that can only offer receiving sites, the R-1 and R-2 zones (with baseline densities of one unit per two acres) and the TC zone (with a baseline density limit of two units per acre.)

Finally, the RFF study observes that the success of this program was greatly helped because the County declined since 1983 to rezone land without TDR acquisition. This commitment to the program undoubtedly increased motivation for participation on the part of both sending area owners and receiving area developers. However, according to the RFF study, this commitment also greatly reduced the amount of County time and resources that previously were consumed in responding to applications for zoning changes and exceptions. 

As of July 2002, the RFF study reports that over 19,600 acres were designated as APD.Of this total, almost 13,000 acres were permanently preserved as the result of the sale of 12,664 TDRs. This total indicates that Calvert County is maintaining its position as one of the most successful TDR programs in the nation. Since Calvert County's goal is the protection of 40,000 acres of agricultural land through all preservation programs, the TDR program alone has itself accomplished almost one-third of that objective.