Warwick Township is located five miles north of the City of Lancaster in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. This is a highly productive agricultural area and Lancaster County uses several approaches to farmland preservation.
Warwick adopted a TDR program designed to preserve the Township's valuable agricultural landscape and economy in 1991 and amended that ordinance in 1996.
Sending areas are parcels within the (A) Agricultural Zone that contained a farm as of the effective date of the ordinance. These sending sites are allocated one TDR for each two gross acres. The receiving area is the Campus Industrial Zone. For each TDR transferred, a receiving site project is allowed an increase in lot coverage of 4,000 square feet up to a maximum of 70 percent. The Warwick code specifically allows the Township itself to purchase TDRs and accept TDRs as gifts. TDRs in Warwick cost $2,500 each. Please refer to Beyond Takings and Givings for procedural details about this program.
In a March 2005 update, information from the office of Township Manager Daniel L. Zimmerman indicates that the Township has purchased 217 TDRs to date. At two acres per TDR, this represents the preservation of 434 acres of farmland. The Township has sold 93 TDRs so far and anticipates the sale of 75 more TDRs by the end of 2005. A total of 326 TDRs have been purchased and 161 TDRs have been sold through a cooperative program with the Lancaster County Agricultural Preserve Board. At the allocation rate of two acres per TDR, these 326 TDRs account for the preservation of 652 acres of agricultural land.
