How do land trusts interface with TDR programs established by local government agencies?
(Marian Pearcy, Harrison County, Corydon, Indiana) Currently, most land trusts appear to work separately from local TDR programs. One exception is the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County, a land trust that was authorized by that California county to administer its TDR program. Rather than simply buying land or easements, the Conservancy buys TDRs that it then resells to developers in an ongoing revolving fund. The ability to resell TDRs has allowed the Conservancy to double its original acquisition fund while preserving 230 properties. A second exception is the Mountains Restoration Trust, formed to administer a portion of California’s Malibu Coastal TDR Program. This land trust buys and sells TDRs, accepts donations of TDRs as charitable contributions, and has even sold the TDRs created when deed restrictions were recorded on land already in public ownership. These two exceptions demonstrate that the apparent lack of coordination between land trusts and TDR programs represents
