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Pierce County revamps transfer‑of‑development‑rights program to boost rural conservation and urban housing options

Pierce County Council · December 16, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

The council approved updates to the county's Transfer of Development Rights program to codify Department of Commerce rules, enable regional collaboration, clarify sending/receiving eligibility, and make technical fixes to encourage voluntary participation; the measure passed 6–1 after committee review and a staff amendment.

Pierce County on Dec. 16 adopted ordinance O2025‑576s to modernize its Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program, a voluntary market mechanism that allows rural landowners to sell development capacity and conserve land while enabling increased density on eligible urban receiving sites.

Planning staff said the update codifies Washington State Department of Commerce guidance, clarifies which zones may serve as sending (typically rural, outside UGAs) and receiving (inside UGAs) sites, updates a zoning eligibility table, and establishes a framework for…

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