Planners’ experiences in managing growth using transferable development rights (TDR) in the United States

While many authors have addressed aspects of transferable development rights (TDR) policy and programming in the United States, empirical data of TDR programs are lacking. Such data are needed to evaluate TDR program implementation and success. This paper reports on the development and implementation of a nationwide self-administered mail survey of planning professionals charged with administering TDR programs. Furthermore, it reports the results and findings of the empirical evaluation of 52 TDR programs in the United States. The reported research tests hypotheses concerning the extent to which TDR program characteristics (e.g., PDR, TDR bank, state enabling legislation, initiators, number of goals, housing demand, presence of background studies) are associated with TDR program success. The results show that the joint existence of a PDR program, the use of background studies, the establishment of a TDR bank, together with which parties initiate TDR programming, the number of initiators, and the type of development demand are positively associated with TDR program success.