Transfer of Development Rights Program

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Transfer of Development Rights (TDR)

TDR Program Summary (PDF)

The City of Milton Community Development Department oversees a Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program that allows for the protection of valuable farmland, habitat, and environmentally sensitive land while encouraging growth in the areas suitable for denser development.

The program allows landowners the ability to waive the right to develop their land and to transfer those development rights to a different parcel of land. In exchange for the transfer of the development rights (i.e. the ability to build at higher densities), the sending parcel owner may receive money for the "developmental rights" that are being sold.

Please note: The City of Milton does not guarantee the amount of income, if any, the sending site owner may ultimately obtain; that will be dependent upon market conditions. It is primarily the sending site owner’s responsibility to obtain a purchaser for the transferred development rights.

There are two distinct procedures by which the City of Milton will acknowledge the right to TDRs:

When owners volunteer their properties as open space TDR sending sites, they propose to retain fee ownership of the property but record an easement that permanently limits the density of residential development that can occur on site.
If a property owner instead wants to explore the possibility of transferring title to the city for use as park, greenway, trail or civic space TDR sending sites, they propose to transfer ownership of that land to the City of Milton.

In effect, TDRs protect large swaths of land from future development while guiding smart growth and density in areas defined by the community.

Click HERE to view the ordinance establishing this program.

An award-winning TDR ordinance is already in place in Crabapple, and the city's main commercial corridor on Ga. 9 and Deerfield Parkway.