Manheim Township lies within Lancaster County, 75 miles west of Philadelphia. Throughout the late 1980s, the Township experienced substantial development on prime agricultural land. To deal with this loss, the Township adopted an agricultural land preservation program in 1990. Under this program, major portions of the Township were rezoned from a residential zone allowing almost three dwelling units per acre to an Agriculture Zoning District which allows only one unit per 20 acres. As compensation for that reduction in development potential, the Township, in 1991, introduced a transfer of development rights program. The details of this program are presented in Beyond Takings and Givings. That book stated that 124 TDRs had been severed, resulting in the preservation of 170 acres of farmland.
The Lancaster Farmland Trust has awarded Manheim Township with its Amos Funk Spirit of Cooperation Award for preserving farmland through TDR. The Trust and Manheim Township have cooperated in the preservation of four farms with a combined acreage of 300 acres. Typically the Trust acquires ten percent of a farm’s TDRs and Manheim Township itself purchases 90 percent. Both the Trust and the Township resell the TDRs. Manheim has conducted two auctions of TDRs in its TDR bank and uses the proceeds as a revolving fund to make additional purchases. At these two auctions, the Township sold 44 TDRs, which were used in two residential receiving area developments. A notice on the Trust’s award details one TDR transaction that saved a 49-acre farm on the National Register of Historic Places with a “spectacular stone-end bank barn.”
In its study of TDR programs in Pennsylvania, the Brandywine Conservancy notes that Manheim Township astutely minimized the potential for NIMBYism in its TDR program by designating Kissell Hill as a receiving area, which is bordered by various non-residential uses including an electrical sub-station.
Manheim Township used TDR to save this 49-acre farm on the National Register of Historic Places with a classic stone-end barn.
The Kissell Hill TDR receiving area is buffered from older developments and many of the homes there incorporate traditional building materials to promote compatibility.
Sources
Manheim Township website: www.manheimtownship.org
Transfer of Development Rights: A Flexible Option for Redirecting Growth in Pennsylvania, Brandywine Conservancy (2003).
