Kim Good is Project Manager with the Miistakis Institute, Calgary, Alberta.
Kim Good describes what is a transfer of development credit (TDC). They are commonly used in the USA and typically called transfer of development rights in the USA.
TDCs are about reconciling conservation and development. The Brandywine Conservancy, a land trust in Pennsylvania, has a series of examples of development: extensive rurban subdivisions, mixed agricultural and acreage subdivisions, densified rural subdivision and agricultural land. Rapid growth communities may want to look at TDCs as a minimal expense to conserve valued landscapes. Kim Good describes some of the advantages of a TDC program. Protected areas may raise the value of adjoining areas that are going to be developed so TDCs spreads that benefit around. She describes how a developer would accumulate TDCs from protected land parcels. Municipalities will use TDCS as a development tool. The restriction on protected land will likely be ensured through a conservation easement on that land parcel. Municipal conservation planning aligned with development planning is a fundamental for TDCs. The municipality adapts TDCs to their particular situation and changing circumstances over time.
Kim Good describes what TDCs can be used for: conservation planning, developmental planning, TDCs can be used under the Alberta Land Stewardship Act. And she covers who starts a TDC program, including developers, conservationists, landowners.
Her presentation was part of her workshop on Ecological Goods and Services through the Greater Edmonton Alliance on Sept. 6, 2012.
