Senate passes bill to define transferable development rights, require public process

The Senate approved Senate Bill 118, which defines transferable development rights and requires cities and counties to create TDR programs by ordinance and through a public process, sponsors said.

Senator Niederhauser, sponsor of SB 118, told colleagues the bill responds to audit findings in Summit County and aims to reduce allegations of favoritism by requiring a clear sending/receiving-zone structure and public hearings. “What this bill will accomplish, I believe, is make clear what a transfer of development right is and what it isn't,” Niederhauser said, adding the bill will require political subdivisions to “do this in a public process.”

Senator Christensen asked whether the bill would affect a proposed film studio in Summit County; Niederhauser said the measure does not directly address that project and that the audit addressed practices spanning back decades. Senators pressed the sponsor about how the public would be notified when TDRs are transferred between properties; Niederhauser pointed to statute language requiring designation “by ordinance” and the need for public hearings to adopt sending and receiving zones.

The sponsor acknowledged the practical difficulty of tracking private sales of development rights and said imposing excessive tracking requirements would effectively end TDR systems, but argued the bill increases transparency and requires ordination-based public processes. The Senate voted to advance and place SB 118 at the bottom of the third-reading calendar after a recorded vote of 25 yeas, 0 nays, 4 absent.