$60K awarded for Washington’s Town Center transfer of development rights (TDR) proposal.
By: Lauren Burgoon
TRENTON Washington’s Town Center, already touted by the developer and town officials as a revolutionary idea in responsible planning, was recognized by the state on Feb. 10 as a demonstration project for other New Jersey towns interested in transfer of development rights (TDR) efforts.
Washington was one of only six towns statewide to be heralded by the Department of Community Affairs as a place where sensible, smart growth TDR projects are ongoing. As a reward for the town’s efforts to build Town Center while preserving other areas of town, the DCA gave Washington $60,000 in seed money to get its TDR ordinance off the ground with the promise that more funds are available to get the regulations in place quickly.
"Smart growth may just be this township’s middle name. They’ve been doing it before we were even calling it smart growth," DCA Commissioner Susan Bass Levin said at the presentation at the DCA building in Trenton.
She described Town Center, which will eventually include 1,000 houses and apartments and 500,000 square feet of office space, stores and restaurants, as an idea that "makes sense."
Washington officials are supposed to use the grant to plan and implement a TDR ordinance. TDR allows developers to purchase development rights from a sending area, like land eyed for open space and farmland preservation or space in historic districts, to build in a receiving area that is equipped for growth. The proceeds from the development rights purchases are used to buy and preserve more open space.
"This isn’t a pilot program," Ms. Bass Levin said of the demonstration sites. "We know TDR works and we’re here to get the job done. This is a win-win-win situation. Growth can occur in the right places, we are saving environmentally sensitive land and developers know exactly where they can build."
Using TDR in relation to Town Center, the DCA says that Washington can preserve 7,000 acres of farmland and open space.
Washington will need to go through months of planning to get a true TDR ordinance that is, one that is garners a DCA endorsement based on different guidelines. The endorsement process is voluntary, but qualifies the town for grants and gives it an official stamp of approval. The town needs to complete studies like population and employment projections and submit a range of documents including a natural resources inventory, an updated Master Plan and a vision statement for the endorsement process.
Planner Kate Fullerton said that the $60,000 will likely cover the preparations necessary to start the TDR ordinance, like hiring professionals and updating the Master Plan. She is hopeful that the state will cover any expenses above the grant amount, which seems likely since Ms. Bass Levin indicated that more money is available for the demonstration towns. State officials have an interest in seeing the demonstration projects succeed as they promote TDR as the first statewide program of its kind in the country.
The five other towns selected for TDR demonstration projects are Fanwood, Berkeley, Montgomery, Hopewell (Cumberland County), and Woolwich. Each faces similar pressures that make TDR essential to their future planning, Ms. Bass Levin said. When Montgomery’s Mayor Louise Wilson spoke about her town’s planning struggles, including high taxes, explosive growth, increased traffic and poor planning decisions in the 1970s, she could have just as easily been speaking about Washington’s problems. Washington must figure out how to balance its new population growth and history as a bedroom community with stabilizing property taxes and building a commercial ratable base.
Despite the similar pressures, each of the six towns has a slightly different spin on the ultimate goal of TDR. While Washington’s primary focus is to accommodate more people and businesses that do not come at the expense of its rural properties, other towns are looking to create a transit village, like in Montgomery, or preserve natural heritage sites, as Woolwich is doing.
The variety of the projects was purposeful, Ms. Bass Levin said, because it allows other communities to witness a wide range of TDR endeavors and learn from successes and defeats that the six towns face along the way.
"We want to establish, not just with these six towns but with every town in New Jersey, what TDR looks like, how to do it, how to create the ordinances and so on. We want to be able to answer questions" using real-life examples, she said. "These models are sort of a how-to how to do TDR."
Washington’s Township Committee has discussed possible TDR regulations since former Gov. James McGreevey signed the legislation last March but plans to vote on an ordinance stalled.