Board sends proposed transfer-of-development-rights ordinance changes, traffic-analysis updates to committee and public hearings

Frederick County staff presented proposed amendments July 8 to Chapter 165 of the county zoning ordinance intended to clarify how the Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program works and to update the county’s Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) standards. The Board of Supervisors voted to send the proposal to the Development Review and Regulations Committee for further work and to authorize public hearings with the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors.

Planning staff explained the proposal would clarify receiving-property criteria for TDRs, allow contingent master-development-plan review prior to an applicant purchasing TDR credits, and tie TDR projects more explicitly to adopted area-plan standards that could require reservation or construction of planned roadways if warranted by a traffic analysis. Staff said those changes aim to reduce uncertainty for applicants who currently must purchase rights without a clear sense of how many their project will need.

“Right now… the ordinance does not allow for program applicants to have any real idea of how they could actually utilize the TDRs prior to transferring them onto the property,” planning staff said. To address that, staff recommended a process allowing applicants to submit a contingent master-plan concept so developers could know how many rights a site could accommodate before making large real-estate purchases. Staff also proposed expanding which receiving areas qualify by referencing comprehensive-plan land-use designations and aligning them with zoning districts; that change would add mixed-use urban-center and neighborhood-village areas as potential receiving areas.

Staff estimated that under the proposed interpretation receiving-area acreage would increase from roughly 900 acres to about 2,000 acres, largely by including urban-center and neighborhood-village parcels. Planning staff also proposed restoring more stringent county TIA thresholds used before 2009 (for example, lower trip thresholds than the VDOT standard now commonly used) while preserving staff’s ability to waive a TIA when site conditions warrant.

Supervisors discussed trade-offs, including the county’s obligation to fund infrastructure that receiving-area development can create—school capacity, road upgrades and emergency services—and the program’s geographic effects. “If you don't have an adequate receiving area, then farmers won't be able to participate,” one supervisor said; another noted that moving development from rural areas into concentrated receiving areas could shift, rather than eliminate, county costs for roads and schools.

After discussion, the board moved and approved sending the draft ordinance amendment to the Development Review and Regulations Committee, with authorization to schedule public hearings before the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors. The item will return to committee and the planning commission for refinement before any final vote.