Rice County, population 56,665 (2000), lies 30 miles south of Minneapolis. The County contains seven cities and 14 townships. Three dozen lakes dot the western half of the County. Despite the County’s proximity to the Twin Cities, agriculture continues to play an important role in the local economy. However, growth pressure exists and County officials are concerned about the steadily decreasing distinction between urban and rural areas.
The TDR program in Rice County is primarily intended to protect farmland and concentrate development in areas where public utilities and services are available. However, transfers are also allowed to protect areas with steep slopes and wetlands in areas surrounding the County’s numerous lakes.
The sending sites can be located in the Agricultural District, the Urban Reserve District or any of the three Shoreland zoning districts: General Development Shoreland (the designation placed on six lakes), the Recreational Development Shoreland (the designation for nine lakes) and Natural Environment Shoreland (the designation placed on 20 lakes.)
In the Agricultural District, maximum on-site density is limited to one unit per 40 acres and the transfer ratio is generally one-to-one: one TDR for each development right foregone. However the following exceptions also apply.
- Undeveloped parcels can transfer one development right regardless of parcel size.
- Undeveloped lots in existence upon adoption of the TDR Ordinance that are at least 10 acres in size may receive 0.5 TDRs as long as some development potential remains within the quarter-quarter section containing the parcel.
- When two undeveloped parcels over one acre in size are located in a quarter-quarter section which qualifies for two development rights, each parcel can receive one TDR.
In the Urban Reserve District, minimum lot size is 35 acres. One TDR can be created per development right foregone.
Minimum lot size is 20,000 square feet in the General Development Shoreland District, (or 40,000 square feet for riparian land.), 40,000 square feet in the Recreational Development Shoreland District and 80,000 square feet in the Natural Environment Shoreland District. In all three Shoreland districts, the number of TDRs available for transfer is equal to the number of development rights foregone based on zoning. Sending areas can only be created in the Shoreland Districts on land with either of the following characteristics.
- Over half of the site consists of steep slopes or wetlands.
- The site cannot be accessed from existing public roads.
TDR receiving areas are dependent on the zoning of the sending area.
- TDRs from the Agricultural District can be used in receiving sites in the Agricultural District that are being developed as minor cluster or golf course cluster developments. TDR can allow a 25 percent increase in the baseline density of a minor cluster development and as much as a 100 percent density bonus for a golf course cluster. TDRs from sending sites in the Agricultural District can also be transferred to receiving sites zoned Agricultural or Village Mixed Use but being developed as village extensions via the Planned Unit Development process. Village extension PUDs must be at least 10 acres in size. Developers of village extension PUDs must acquire one TDR per two acres within the sending site. However each TDR allows two bonus units. In other words, the developer does not have to buy TDRs to achieve a density of one unit per acre but acquisition of one TDR per two acres is required, resulting in an overall density of two units per acre. However, developers may exceed this two-unit-per-acre density by providing sanitary sewers systems and other urban infrastructure.
- TDRs zoned Shoreland District may also be transferred to a golf course cluster development or a village extension area on land zoned Agricultural as well as to land around the same lake as the sending site and in the same Shoreland District.
Transfers must occur within the same township unless the sending and receiving sites are contiguous and in common ownership and when the transfer is approved by both Township Boards.
When transfers occur between properties in separate ownership, the owners must record a development agreement on the deeds of all affected parcels. Rice County allows this development agreement to provide for reacquiring development rights for use on the sending site. In addition, if the sending site is upzoned, the development rights allowed under the new zoning can be used on the sending site minus all development rights previously transferred off the site. If the sending area is annexed into a city, the restriction must be removed entirely.
