Last Updated - September 2008
Contact Information:
For further information regarding Transferable Development Rights (TDRs) in Summit County contact:
Transferable Development Rights (TDRs)
TDRs are a voluntary program or planning tool that has been used successfully by some jurisdictions as a means of redirecting growth and development to protect valued resources. Examples of resources that can potentially be protected through a TDR program include: farmland, ranches, rural backcountry areas, view corridors, hillsides, community separation and open space buffers, and environmentally sensitive areas. TDRs provide a mechanism to help preserve these types of resources by compensating landowners who might otherwise develop their properties.
Summit County has made extensive use of TDRs. The county’s TDR program provides a vehicle where the rights to develop in a rural “sending area” (i.e. primarily backcountry properties) can be transferred to an urban “receiving area”, an area that can more appropriately accommodate the development.
County TDR Sending and Receiving Areas Maps
For planning and administrative purposes, the county is divided into four planning basins (Lower Blue, Snake River, Ten Mile and Upper Blue basin). As part of the Countywide TDR Program Regulations "Official Transfer of Development Rights Sending and Receiving Areas Maps" for each of the four basins have been adopted/codified. The maps were codified as part of developing respective basin TDR regulations and designate neutral, receiving, sending and optional areas in each basin. Neutral, receiving, sending and optional areas are currently defined as:
Neutral Areas: Those parcels that have been determined to not be suitable for transferring development rights from or to, and therefore not eligible to send or receive density.
Receiving Areas: Those parcels potentially suitable for transferring development rights to. A parcel may not actually be used as a receiving area unless it receives approval for a zoning amendment, PUD, or PUD amendment subject to the TDR provisions contained in the Development Code.
Sending Areas: Those parcels suitable for transferring development rights from.
Optional Areas: Optional areas are only applicable in the Lower Blue Basin. An optional area refers to those parcels that have been determined to be suitable for sending or receiving development rights, and therefore eligible to send or receive density. However, an optional area does not enable the parcel to both send and receive development rights, only one or the other.
Official Upper Blue Basin Transfer of Development Rights Sending and Receiving Areas Map [3663 KB]
Official Ten Mile Basin Transfer of Development Rights Sending and Receiving Areas Map [2312 KB]
Official Snake River Blue Basin Transfer of Development Rights Sending and Receiving Areas Map [2092 KB]
Official Lower Blue Basin Transfer of Development Rights Sending and Receiving Areas Map [2882 KB]
Background - Upper Blue TDR Program
The Upper Blue Basin TDR Program was initiated in 2000 and has been the most successful TDR program in the county. In eight years it has protected 939.69 acres and generated $1,366,833 to be recycled for more open space purchases. The success of the Upper Blue TDR Program stems from the joint efforts of the county, and towns of Breckenridge and Blue River to implement the program, and more importantly the public foresight, initiative and support to develop the program.
The Upper Blue Basin is about 80,400 acres in size with a permanent 2007 population of approximately 8,838 residents. Roughly 76 percent of the basin is national forest system lands, the majority of which comprises undeveloped mountainsides. The primary areas of development are within and adjacent to the towns of Blue River and Breckenridge, in close proximity to the valley floor of the Blue River.
The Upper Blue Basin backcountry consists of hundreds of private mining claims that are often located in sensitive environmental locations and on ridgelines or in above-timberline locations. These mining claims have the ability to be developed for residential purposes. Development on these claims could subsequently obstruct valued viewsheds and recreational access to national forest system lands. Thus, the initial and primary goal of the Upper Blue TDR regulations was to implement a program to help protect backcountry areas, resources and open spaces on the mountains surrounding the Towns of Breckenridge and Blue River from residential development.
Owners of backcountry parcels may voluntarily participate in the Upper Blue TDR program. In exchange for giving up their right to develop a backcountry parcel the property owners are monetarily compensated. When a property owner is compensated, the development rights associated with their property are transferred into areas that can more appropriately accommodate development (areas within or near the Town of Breckenridge or Blue River). There is a market for TDRs because county and town policies prohibit the upzoning of land (i.e. adding more units of density) unless TDRs are acquired.
Important components to making the Upper Blue TDR Program work are the development of the Backcountry (BC) zoning district and the Upper Blue TDR Bank. In conjunction with the development of the Upper Blue TDR Program regulations, the hundreds of private mining claims in the basin were rezoned to the Backcountry zoning district. The purpose and intent of the Backcountry zoning district is to retain the relatively undeveloped character of backcountry areas while allowing for very low impact development. However, the Backcountry zoning district provides tradeoffs to backcountry property owners. For example, there are limitations on the size of structures that can be built in exchange for relaxed county road improvement standards to access these private mining claims.
The Upper Blue TDR Bank provides a benefit to potential users of TDRs and was created as a way to help bring prospective purchasers and sellers of TDRs together. A backcountry property owner who is interested in selling their development rights would normally have to locate a potential purchaser on their own. Vice versa, a developer would normally have to do extensive research to locate prospective sellers. The Upper Blue TDR Bank allows either party to voluntarily come to one known location to complete these arrangements. The county administers the TDR Bank, in coordination with the Town of Breckenridge. One TDR is equal to 20 acres of backcountry property (with a couple exceptions) and in 2008 was sold by the County for $42,640 or approximately $2,200 per acre. This price is increased or adjusted yearly.
Overall, since it was initiated the Upper Blue TDR Program has protected approximately 60-70 percent of the identified backcountry area in the Upper Blue Basin. Recently the program was amended to allow platted properties in designated receiving areas containing high quality wetlands to possibly qualify as TDR sending areas. Based on the success of the Upper Blue program, in 2006 the Snake River and Ten Mile basins developed TDR program regulations almost identical to the Upper Blue’s. Additionally, rezoning of approximately 341 backcountry claims to the Backcountry zoning district in these basins was completed in August 2007. The county is optimistic about continued growth, success and more coordinated approach to utilization of TDRs in the future.
Additional Basin Specific TDR Program Information
The Lower Blue Basin TDR regulations were adopted in September 2007, and the basin has had one (1) transaction protecting 20 acres. The Ten Mile Basin TDR regulations were adopted in July 2006, and is the only basin of the four not to conduct/enact a TDR transaction. The Snake River Basin has had a TDR program in place since 1998 and has had nine (9) separate TDR transactions protecting approximately 300.43 acres.
This page provides documents in PDF format. Please use Adobe Acrobat to view these files.
If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, click on the "Get Acrobat" button to the left to get this free program.