As reported in Beyond Takings and Givings, Oakland, California has a TDR code section that allows transfer of density between abutting properties in an effort to provide flexibility and promote the preservation of historic buildings. When the book went to press, the Oakland program had not experienced a single transfer. However, planner Scott Miller now reports approval of a project using the City's TDR provisions.
The receiving site development is an 81-unit residential condominium on a 1.15-acre site on Ford, Lancaster and Glascock Streets. The site is zoned M-40, Heavy Industrial. The general plan designation is Residential Mixed Use under the City's Estuary Policy Plan (EPP). The EPP allows residential development by conditional use permit. Although the neighborhood still has an industrial character, developers are interested in building residential as well as live-work units here. One live-work complex is already completed, one is under construction, another has been approved and a fourth is awaiting approval. At the EPP's maximum density of 53.33 units per acre, the 1.15-acre site would be allowed 61 units without TDR.
Through TDR, 20 units were transferred to the site, allowing density to increase from 61 to 81 units. The developer of the receiving site project is also developing the sending site. The sending site project, known as The Estuary, would be allowed 211 units under the EPP but the developer is proposing to build a 100-unit condominium and transfer the unused units. In return for approval of the transfer, the developer must record an easement permanently limiting the sending site to a density of 100 units.
The City's TDR code section requires sending and receiving sites to be adjacent. But the City approved a variance to allow this transfer between nearby but not adjacent properties. The City also approved variances for two development standards, allowing reductions in the width of the courtyard and parking spaces adjacent to walls.
