Price of TDR Development Rights Getting Cheaper, ADN

In 2007, 34 of the rights sold with prices ranging from $250,000 to $318,000 according to a recent county report on the viability of the program. This year, 11 sold with prices ranging from $125,000 to $165,000, continuing a steady decrease in market value over the last four years.

ASPEN REAL ESTATE - The typical sale price of local transferable development rights has been cut in half over the last four years, as Aspen’s luxury real estate market has suffered along with the national economy. The program, launched by the county in 1995, allows landowners in down-zoned “rural and remote” areas to be compensated for the loss of their potential rights to build homes. They can sell a transferable development right (TDR) to people elsewhere in the county, allowing the purchaser to exceed house size limits. Without TDRs, the county caps homes at 5,570 square feet. But each additional right purchased allows an owner to add 2,500 square feet onto a house — up to 15,000 square feet.
By Andrew Travers, Dec. 30, 2012 ADN

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The Pitkin County Transferable Development Rights (TDR) Program has provided large land tract owners a method to partially monetize their development rights while preserving the open land and rural characteristics of vast parts of Pitkin County. (Editor: Tim Estin)