Kim Good is Project Manager with the Miistakis Institute, Calgary, Alberta.
Kim Good describes how the Alberta Land Stewardship Act enables Transfer Development Credits (TDC). Municipalities can establish a TDC program. Kim Good describes the details that a municipality should consider in creating a TDC program. Kim Good clarifies how a market for TDCs works. Landowners receive cash payments but there are no set amount for credits (supply of TDCs by landowners and demand by developers will fluctuate). She then reviews a theoretical examples where a TDC program to protect agricultural land sends development credits to an urban fringe area. The agricultural landowners get financial compensation. The developer gets to densify their subdivision (smaller lots, more lots). She explains the difference between the valuation of a transfer of development credit and a conservation easement. She describes the experience of two Alberta municipalities that have TDC pilots, the M.D. of Bighorn and the Beaver Hills in the County of Beaver. The Beaver Hills pilot has a final report at the end of 2012.
She finishes by describing TDCs in the State of Maryland to retain agricultural land.
Kim Good's presentation was part of her workshop on Ecological Goods and Services through the Greater Edmonton Alliance, Sept. 6, 2012.
