Americans are committing 'country-cide', says Rick Pruetz, FAICP, converting farms into suburban yards and channeling streams that once provided flood control, water purification, habitats, and recreational opportunities. But rather than rail against overdevelopment, this book celebrates communities succeeding in preservation. For ten years Pruetz explored communities that excel in saving their natural environment. In twenty-four illustrated vignettes, he captures the character of places from the volcanic range near downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Minneapolis’s Grand Rounds park system, to farmland improbably preserved on Long Island. As the longtime city planner of Burbank, California, Pruetz offers more than an appreciation of these communities. He brings a planner’s-eye view of the practices behind their achievements. His detailed reports of creative preservation solutions mark the trail for planners, commissioners, and citizens who seek to preserve the green legacy in their own backyards.
Land use is essential to climate action. We need diverse, compact communities where people can meet their daily needs without a car. We need to preserve our farms, forests, and wetlands, as well as maximize their ability to sequester carbon. We need to secure the embedded energy in older buildings, safeguard our water, restore biodiversity, and adapt to the growing threat from wildfires, floods, and sea level rise. By accomplishing any one of these goals, we often receive many other benefits in addition to the mitigation of greenhouse gases and adaptation to the growing threats of climate change. Transfer of development rights, or TDR, is a cost-effective way of steering growth away from places needed for climate action and into locations where development can be safely and efficiently accommodated. Unlike other preservation tools, TDR is primarily powered by private sector profits rather than taxation. In addition, jurisdictions themselves can engage in the TDR process to transform a limited investment into a perpetual revolving fund for preservation.Smart Climate Action profiles 282 TDR programs and highlights how this market-based tool can and has been used to preserve greenbelts, forests, farms, wetlands, and landmarks as well as reduce vulnerability to wildfire, floods, sea level rise, and water scarcity. Developing a successful TDR program requires extensive community engagement and political will. However, the cost of using TDR for climate action remains much lower than the cost of inaction.
Rick Pruetz is a former city planner and now a planning consultant specializing in the preservation of environmental areas, farmland, historic landmarks and other community benefits. He has authored five books including Lasting Value: Open Space Planning and Preservation Successes. He also serves on the Board of Ecocity Builders, a non-profit organization dedicated to the emergence of cities in balance with nature."--Google Books.
Transfer of Development Rights" (TDR) programs allow local governments to put economic principles to work in encouraging good land use planning. TDR programs most often permit landowners to forfeit development rights in areas targeted for preservation and then sell those development rights to buyers who want to increase the density of development in areas designated as growth areas by local authorities. Although TDR programs must conform to zoning laws, they provide market incentives that make them more equitable (and often more lucrative) for sellers and frequently benefit buyers by allowing them to receive prior approval for their high-density development plans. Since the 1970s when modern TDR applications were first conceived, more than 200 communities in 33 states across the U.S. have implemented TDR-based programs. The most common uses of TDR to date involve protecting farmland, environmentally sensitive land, historic sites, and "rural character," and urban revitalization. Until now, however, there has never been a clearly written, one-volume book on the subject. At last, The TDR Handbook provides a comprehensive guide to every aspect of TDR programs, from the thinking behind them to the nuts and bolts of implementation-including statutory guidance, model ordinances, suggestions for program administration, and comparisons with other types of preservation programs. In addition, six of its twenty chapters are devoted to case studies of all major uses to which TDR programs have been utilized to date, including recent urban revitalization projects that utilize TDR principles.
Celebrates conservation programs in 42 communities, that are saving natural areas, farmland and open space using such methods as development rights transfer, open space taxes, and preservation of species efforts. Communities include Pima County, Arizona.
Americans are committing 'country-cide', says Rick Pruetz, FAICP, converting farms into suburban yards and channeling streams that once provided flood control, water purification, habitats, and recreational opportunities. But rather than rail against overdevelopment, this book celebrates communities succeeding in preservation. For ten years Pruetz explored communities that excel in saving their natural environment. In twenty-four illustrated vignettes, he captures the character of places from the volcanic range near downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Minneapolis’s Grand Rounds park system, to farmland improbably preserved on Long Island. As the longtime city planner of Burbank, California, Pruetz offers more than an appreciation of these communities. He brings a planner’s-eye view of the practices behind their achievements. His detailed reports of creative preservation solutions mark the trail for planners, commissioners, and citizens who seek to preserve the green legacy in their own backyards.
Transfer of Development Rights" (TDR) programs allow local governments to put economic principles to work in encouraging good land use planning. TDR programs most often permit landowners to forfeit development rights in areas targeted for preservation and then sell those development rights to buyers who want to increase the density of development in areas designated as growth areas by local authorities. Although TDR programs must conform to zoning laws, they provide market incentives that make them more equitable (and often more lucrative) for sellers and frequently benefit buyers by allowing them to receive prior approval for their high-density development plans. Since the 1970s when modern TDR applications were first conceived, more than 200 communities in 33 states across the U.S. have implemented TDR-based programs. The most common uses of TDR to date involve protecting farmland, environmentally sensitive land, historic sites, and "rural character," and urban revitalization. Until now, however, there has never been a clearly written, one-volume book on the subject. At last, The TDR Handbook provides a comprehensive guide to every aspect of TDR programs, from the thinking behind them to the nuts and bolts of implementation-including statutory guidance, model ordinances, suggestions for program administration, and comparisons with other types of preservation programs. In addition, six of its twenty chapters are devoted to case studies of all major uses to which TDR programs have been utilized to date, including recent urban revitalization projects that utilize TDR principles.
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