Dear Councilmember Perez:
On behalf of Sugarloaf Citizens Association
representing over 500 families in
the Montgomery County Agriculture Reserve I am
writing to urge the Council to
allow TDR's to be utilized in the County's new Transit
Oriented Mixed Use
Zones.
and transfer of development rights program. But
that program is in trouble.
Several years ago, the Planning Department's
TDR task force learned that one
problem was a lack of desirable receiving areas. A
major recommendation of the
task force was that TDRs
be a part of the development expected in the County's
high density urban and transit station areas.
TDRs are not accommodated in the current station
area zones. Now the Planning
Board has proposed a new Transit Oriented
Mixed Use (TOMX) zone to apply in all
transit station areas except CBDs.
Yet, we have heard that the planning staff
recommends against including TDRs
in that zone. They apparently feel that more
receiving areas are not needed.
We disagree. We urge the Council and planners
to provide for TDRs in the TOMX
zone. The market for transit oriented development
is hot; increasingly such
urban infill development will dominate in
achieve this development would raise the value or TDRs and encourage farmers to
sell them.
The agriculture reserve has many problems. TDRs in the TOMX zone will not solve
these problems, but it would certainly help. We are celebrating the 25th
anniversary of the Ag Reserve this year and handling the
TDR issue properly will
help assure the future of this vital
Sincerely,
Jin Brown
President
Sugarloaf Citizens Assn