[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of County Commissioners (now
County Council) of Cecil County 7-17-2012 by Ord. No. 2012-04. Amendments noted
where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Purchase of development rights — See Ch. A385.
The purpose of this chapter is to establish a County transfer
of development rights program that will create a bank to purchase
and sell development rights. It is the purpose of this chapter to
provide another method to assist landowners wishing to retain their
properties in agricultural use and assist landowners wishing to realize
higher densities in the growth area.
The transfer of development rights program shall initially receive
its funding from a dedicated portion of the County’s video lottery
terminal proceeds. Subsequent funding may come from either funds received
from the sale of purchased development rights or from general budgetary
allocations.
Parcels shall meet the following criteria in order to qualify
as a sending parcel to sell development rights:
A.
The property
shall have a minimum acreage of 25 acres in areas zoned NAR if adjacent
to a property on which an agricultural preservation easement already
exists, or 50 acres in areas zoned NAR, otherwise; and 50 acres in
areas zoned SAR.
B.
The property
shall be located in either the Northern Agricultural Residential (NAR)
Zoning District or the Southern Agricultural Residential (SAR) Zoning
District.
C.
At least
50% of the soils shall be classified as USDA Class I, II, and III
soils.
D.
If the
property is wooded, at least 50% of the soils shall be classified
as Woodland Group 1 or 2 soils.
(1)
If
the reason the property could not meet the above criteria was because
of floodplain or wetland soils, those areas could be excluded as a
percentage of the land; or
(2)
If
there is an insufficient percentage of USDA I, II, or III soils and
there is an insufficient percentage of Woodland Group 1 and 2 soils
alone, the land would qualify if the two exceed 60%.
E.
Parcels
proposing to sell development rights to protect environmentally sensitive
areas or to establish riparian buffers in the Chesapeake Bay Critical
Area shall be located in the Northern Agricultural Residential (NAR)
Zoning District and Southern Agricultural Residential (SAR) Zoning
District and, in the case of Chesapeake Bay Critical Area, riparian
buffers have either a Limited Development Area (LDA) or Resource Conservation
Area (RCA) encumbrance.
F.
Parcels
shall meet the following criteria in order to qualify as a receiving
area to use development rights:
(1)
The
property shall have a minimum acreage of 10 acres.
(2)
The
property shall be located in the Employment Mixed Use (EMU), Residential
Mixed Use (RMU), Suburban Transition (ST), or Urbanized Residential
(UR) Zoning District.
(3)
The
property shall be currently served with water and sewer facilities,
or be planned to be served in the next 10 years, or be serviced by
a developer-financed approved shared facility. The current master
water and sewer plan for the County shall be used for this determination.
Property owners desiring to sell their development rights to the County shall send a written statement, signed by the owner(s) of the property, expressing their wish to sell development rights. Upon receipt of the written statement, the County shall verify that the property meets the eligibility requirements as contained in § A386-3. Once the property has been determined to meet the minimum requirements to sell development rights, the following shall occur:
A.
The County
shall notify the landowner(s) of the number of development rights
that can be sold based on the acreage of the parcel and the zoning
district in which it is situated.
B.
The notice
shall contain an offer for the value equal to the number of development
rights contemplated to be sold. This value shall be based on each
bundle of development rights. The fair market value will be established
by two separate appraisals to determine the value of each bundle of
development rights. The cost of the appraisals will be borne by the
landowner(s).
C.
The County
shall notify the landowner(s) that the payment for the development
rights will be made through an installment purchase agreement (IPA)
spread over up to a twenty-five-year period.
D.
A transfer
of development rights conservation easement and a deed of transfer
of development rights shall be executed between the landowner(s) and
the County. The transfer of development rights conservation easement
and the deed of transfer of development rights shall be recorded in
the office of the Clerk of the Court for Cecil County.
E.
If a landowner(s)
sells development rights to the County, no further subdivision can
occur on the sending parcel unless the acreage is withheld prior to
the calculation of development rights.
F.
Property owners desiring to purchase development rights from the County shall send a written statement, signed by the property owner and developer, expressing their wish to purchase development rights, the number of rights desired to be obtained, and the property on which the rights are to be used. Upon receipt of the written statement, the County shall verify that the property meets the eligibility requirements as contained in § A386-3. Once the property has been determined to meet the minimum requirements to receive development rights, the following shall occur:
(1)
The
County shall notify the landowner(s) and developer of the value of
the development rights desired to be purchased. This value shall be
based on up to 120% of the fair market value of each bundle of development
rights established by two separate appraisals conforming to the current
Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP). The
cost of the appraisals will be borne by the landowner(s)/developer.
(2)
A
deed of transfer of development rights shall be executed between the
County and the receiving landowner(s) and developer. The deed shall
be recorded in the office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Cecil
County prior to the recordation of the plat for the subdivision on
the receiving parcel.
(3)
The
record plat will not be signed by the Director of Planning and Zoning
until the recordation of the deed occurs.
A.
The purpose
of the transfer of development rights bank is to create an inventory
of development rights available for sale to qualifying receiving area
parcels and to create a market for the sale of development rights
from qualifying sending area parcels. Although initially funded by
VLT funds and/or general budgetary outlays, the goal is to ultimately
have a self-perpetuating funding source based on the sale of development
rights to qualifying receiving parcels.
B.
The bank
will maintain an inventory of the number of development rights purchased,
the parcels from which the rights were obtained, the cost of acquisition,
the number of development rights sold, the parcels to which they were
transferred, and the price for which they were sold. The bank shall
maintain a ledger of the funds encumbered in the acquisitions, funds
received through sale, and available funds to perpetuate the program.
C.
The County
shall have the right to retire the TDRs without selling them, so long
as the self-perpetuating funding nature of the bank would not be jeopardized.
At the conclusion of each fiscal year, the Office of Planning
and Zoning shall present to the County Council a report on the activities
of the transfer of development rights bank for the just-concluded
fiscal year.
